ALL IS RED
by Delusional Fishies
Summary: In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, the world is burning and dying. You are its thirsting god, laughing, crying, screaming and whispering in joy and sorrow. But in the end, blood tells... It always does... You... are Red.
1. Part 1

**ALL IS RED**

"Welcome! To the world of Pokemon, my name is Oak, but people call me the Pokemon Professor-_is what I would say if we were going by your cover. We're not."_

The gray haired Professor grimaced as he sat down on his comfortable, leather chair. Age has taken a toll on him that none of his rivals could. As he sat down, his knee joints screamed to him. You can see it on his face, an expression of pain that is easily suppressed by the powerful spymaster.

"You are code name Red, my... protege, if you will," He says as he picks up a glass of red wine and swirls the contents slowly before taking a sip. After a moment he continues, "At last, you have finished my lessons for you. You are ready..."

"It doesn't matter if you are going to go under the name Red, or Satoshi Tajiri as you are so fond of that cover, but there are a series of missions I want you to accomplish. These... these are not the simple errands that I have had you do so far, Red, like assassinations or espionage." He purses his lips. He has always been unwilling to talk about killing, saying that it was something not spoken of in polite company. "You'll probably be happy to note that your friend, my grandson, code Blue, is also becoming a field agent with you. However he will not be joining you unless it is for an important mission."

"As you know, your handler, Delia 'Ketchem'," At this point, Professor Oak takes a slow puff of his Cinnabar Island Cigars, "will be contacting you at points and managing your resources... if you need it. You might want to go see my granddaughter too, she seems sad that you are going to leave. Pity."

He hands you a pokeball, "I know you had have that poliwag for since the beginning of your training. However, all beginning trainers start with a 'starter' of some type. Your cover is that all the starter-pokemon are taken, so you get this pikachu. Blue will be receiving his Eevee that he had been training with since the beginning of his lessons."

You hold the pokeball tightly, feeling a light shock moving through your hands as the pokemon within reacts to you. You also let go in shock, but hold on to it tightly still.

"Also, I'd like both of you to travel with your pokemon out," The Professor adds as his hands bridge together before him and shadows cover his eyes. "Think of it as a... side project, on the effects of training pokemon without the use of pokeballs. You can, of course, play it off as your pokemon being disobedient, but we both know you are capable of dominating any after what you have gone through."

He then gives you the starting set of pokeballs that you had 'paid' for after 'you' 'registered' to be come a trainer.

"Now then, your first mission is relatively simple," Oak says, "There is a... package... that one of my contacts have delivered to Viridian City. However, this contact has gone missing. Expect interference from either other Professors or Teams, or even one of my enemy Gym Leaders. The package should still be at the drop off. Tell the freckled, red-headed man named Ronald working at the PokeMart the passphrase and he should get it to you."

The ever illusive man, Professor Oak, concludes his talk with you as he finishes his cigar, "and remember, when in question of what we do: "Salvation comes with a cost. Judge us not by our methods, but what we seek to accomplish.""

* * *

><p>You hold up the pamphlet that came with the five starting pokeballs and the Pikachu. It reads "<em>You've finally been granted your Pokémon Trainer's license, and now you're on your way to becoming the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer! The shockingly-cute Pikachu tags along behind you as you search the enormous world for monsters to train and evolve. Face off against Blastoise's torrential water cannons. Stand strong when facing Pidgeot's stormy Gust. Develop the ultimate Pokémon strategy to defeat the eight Gym Leaders and become the greatest Pokémon Master of all time!<em>"

Inside were cartoon doodles of a generic pokemon trainer and various famous pokemon, like Nidorino, Onix and the mythical Gengar doing various things in the Arena. You stuff it inside your backpack.

A blur appears before your eyes, but there is only one boy that fast in Pallet Town and still alive: Blue. You clasp hands before he challenges you, "Well, Red, how about testing out our tools before we start our active field agent status?"

"Ha," Blue slaps you on the back, "You're such a joker. Always so serious too, I bet 500 poke my Eevee here can beat both of your clowns; you up for it?"

The Eevee on his shoulder takes a look at you and then looks away, making a dismissive noise as if you were not worth enough to be the dirt on its paws.

"Go Eevee, I choose you!" Blue exclaims loudly and sarcastically, mostly to parody the types of trainers that most others try to emulate these days. You sidestep the ferocious critter and allow the pikachu's pokeball to drop from your palm, timing it so that its release gauge touches the ground at the exact time the ball comes in contact.

Instead of going after the pikachu, the Eevee charges after you with a vengeance. Its fur hardens and sharpens like needles as Blue mockingly drawls, "Use pin needle and the take down."

You are able to dodge the shower of super speed needles as it only hit a small cone in front of the Eevee to begin with.

You command your pikachu to thundershock, pushing the Eevee away from your person immediately. A tingle on the arm you raised to shield yourself tells you that you should reprimand or at least teach this new born pikachu what 'friendly fire' means.

Almost immediately, the Eevee switches to a defensive without Blue's command. It eyes your pikachu carefully, not daring to charge in and attack something that can release so many volts of electrical power.

[PokeGear: Blue's Eevee is Lv. 5]

As both Blue and his Eevee's attentions were on Pikachu, you make a silent sidestep without catching their attention. It was one of the more basic skills you learned as the illusive Professor Oak's student. From your off-hand, you activate the laser function of the pokeball, allowing the poliwag to be released without touching the ground. It immediately shoots a powerful stream of pressurized synthesized water, splattering all over Blue and his Eevee.

Immediately after, a concentrated bolt of electricity smashes into Blue and Eevee's forms, so powerful that even the ground surrounding them is superheated to glass. As the dust clears, there is only a large pockmark.

Several feet away, Blue smirks at you with his hands in his pocket. He strides nonchalantly up and laughs out, "Double Team!"

Again, both poliwag and pikachu attack with their ranged elemental attacks, and again you only catch an after image.  
>Your poliwag sprays the field with bubbles, a few hitting the real Blue and Eevee and exploding in a burst of water on contact. You draw poliwag back into his ball and allow pikachu to send his shock through the water.<p>

It does not deal much damage to the Eevee due to the thick fur, but it is enough to drive Blue back. But your pikachu shoots its thundershock again, this time it gets a lucky shot in, hitting the Eevee square in the face (critical hit!).

Disoriented, the Eevee staggers back, growling wildly. You realize that it has been temporarily blinded. You nod to your pikachu, ordering it to finish the Eevee off with another shock. The pikachu walks close, stepping into the water puddle that the Eevee is still in.

"No! Get out of there, Eevee!" Blue shouts, his voice slightly panicked.

But it was too late, your pikachu's electricity is stronger. Pikachu holds his shock for longer than normal, enough to fry the Eevee enough that it faints. As the pikachu moves in to finish the Eevee off, you stomp your foot, catching its attention. You shake your head once, and glare down at the pikachu. It backs off, coming back to you.

Blue scratches his head and whistles, "that's a powerful pikachu you got there. Did gramps find one with maxed out IV's or something, just for you? Ah, whatever. Here you go, Red." He transfers 500 poke to your account through his PokeGear. "In the future call me Gary Oaks. That'll be the cover that I'll be going under when we come around and 'start our pokemon journey' next week. You should go see my sister, she wanted to see you for some reason."

He pats you on the shoulder and smirks, "Well, smell ya later."

[PokeGear: +500 Poke]

* * *

><p>You check your shoulder and find nothing. Blue could track you through your PokeGear anyway, but he should be able to trace your movements regardless since he was trained beside you.<p>

You notice your pikachu wearing a metal necklace with an odd, sparkling ball at the center. PokeGear says it is called a Light Ball.

You walk to the Oak's residence. While on the outside it is a moderate home, on the inside it is a complex compound filled to the brim with security of all types. Its basement is a mobile bunker.

Before you could even knock on the door, it opens to the sight of Daisy Oak, the illusive Professor's prized granddaughter. Many times winner of many different kinds of competition, she is a mutlitalented young woman who, if in the school system, would not have even graduated from high school. She is five years older than you and seemed to like to hug you and cling to you a lot, much to your confusion.

"Red! I-I didn't even dress-I mean, it's nice to see you!" She plays with the hem of her dress, flustered. She is wearing a tight button-up shirt that seemed to be strained at the chest and a rather short skirt with thigh high stockings. "W-would you like to come in? I can have the tea done in a minute if you have time. Grandfather said you are going to do an errand for him today, so I-I don't know..." She shifts around, finding the floor tiles suddenly very interesting.

Ah, you remember: she doesn't know what the Professor's other jobs are, and always thought of you as an intern or assistant at the Oak's Labs. In fact, the only ones who know about you being who you really are are: Professor Oak, Delia 'Ketchem', and 'Blue'.

You admire her all the while suppressing your more animalistic urges to pin her down and-well, you admire her. Her face seems to grow redder as you continue to scrutinize her.

"R-red?"

You gently remove one of her hands from the hem of her skirt and bend forward to kiss her knuckles. She immediately pulls away the moment your lips make contact, as if her hand had been burnt.

"A-ah, the tea should be r-ready soon! C-come on in!" She rushes away, with both hands covering her heated cheeks.

You walk inside and take your shoes off. The living room is surprisingly simple for a family such as the Oaks, but you spot many hidden weapons, sentries, and cameras all over the room. Still, some tea might be nice, you are a little parched. You can hear the clatter of her working in the kitchens.

"I-I'll be ready in a minute!" She calls to you, "Make y-yourself at home!"

There is a television in the living room, with a large sofa facing it. You see a table with several chairs around it near the sofa. There is also a table in front of the sofa, with some snacks placed on it. "Ragecandy Bars!" is the type of snacks, and the wrappers also have a cartoon-like Gyarados giving you a wink.

The television is on, showing a news channel.

"A mysterious earthquake shook Cerulean City today, originating from the North-West, near Mount Moon. Experts say that it was caused by Psychic intrusions, but no word has come from Saffron City about this-"

You get up and walk to the kitchens. Pikachu follows you obediently. It seems to be looking at the ketchup bottle on the kitchen counter.

"Oh, R-Red, what are you doing here?" Daisy asks as you begin helping her with the choirs. It turns out she was just starting up the rice cooker. You look around to see if there is anything to help her with.

"You're m-my guest," she slaps you on your arm gently, "you should go sit down while I prepare something for you. And your new pikachu, of course," she giggles down at your little furry critter. You remember that she is also a high-class pokemon breeder.

"But if you insist," she pouts cutely at you. You notice that she is just a little taller than you, but it feels like she is always looking up at you. "Here are the plates and cups, go carry them over to the table will you?"

You carry the porcelain cups and plates over. A few seconds later, Daisy follows you out of the kitchen with an ornate kettle and a small plate of pokemon snacks. As you sit down, pikachu leaps onto her lap and she begins to pet him. He purrs gently, as if he was not bred and created solely for death and destruction.

"So what brings you here, Red," Daisy asks, "I had thought you were running an important errand for grandfather?"

You stand up and take the ketchup bottle from the kitchen and hand it to the pikachu on Daisy's lap. He begins to sip on it slowly, and purring even louder.

Daisy looks at you in wonder and repeats her question.

"Ah, of course!" Daisy exclaims as she claps her hands together. "I wanted to give you an updated mapcard for your PokeGear. Grandfather said you needed a new one last night during dinner."

She rushes out of the living room and runs back as fast as she could. Your eyes follow her body, while pikachu seems content just laying there with the ketchup bottle as a body pillow.

Daisy returns quickly and holds out a chip no larger than an SD card and smile brightly at you, "Here, you might need it."

You nod a thank-you to her and install the mapcard into your PokeGear. You stand up and get ready to leave. Immediately, pikachu jumps out of his seat and follows you, ketchup bottle forgotten.

"Remember, if you need _anything_, don't hesitate to come by," Daisy blushes as she invades your personal space. She brushes your hair back and kisses you on the cheek, "I'll be waiting for you."

You leave the Oak residence.

* * *

><p>Green, as you so fondly call her, is actually a girl named Leaf. She is your next door neighbor and has, by Handler Delia's words, 'harbored a crush on you since the day you arrived'. Her family has been part of the Pallet Town expeditionary settlement for two generations making her the first in their family to actually be born in this frontier settlement.<p>

You knock on her door. Today is a Saturday, so she should be home.

"Coming~!" Green's voice carries to you. She has a song-like voice that you think would be very good for if she wanted to become an Idol in the big cities.

"Ah! Satoshi! I-What are you doing here?" She greets you. Immediately, she grows red as she fumbles and trips at her doorstep when she opens the door. She falls against your chest as you catch her. She reddens further. "Ah-ah-ah..."

You tell her that you will be leaving the town on an errand for Professor Oak, and that you may not be back until the end of the week.

Green bites her lower lips. "You're always so mysterious, Sato," a nickname she chose for you, "Some times I wonder... Well, I hope you have a safe trip. Route 1 should be safe, but..." She looks down.

After a moment, you wonder what's wrong and reach out. You accidentally brush against her cheeks with you fingers.

"Wah... Sato!" She hugs you tightly before running in. "Good luck!" She shouts as she slams the door shut. What a weird girl.

Pikachu agrees. He looks up to you now in question. On to route one?

* * *

><p>You walk into the Route 1, outside of Pallet Town's heavily fortified walls. You give a nod to the machokes at the gates and leave.<p>

Traveling by foot from Pallet Town to Viridian City takes about two days if you were fast enough. Pikachu hops onto your shoulder and presses its cheeks against yours, letting off a soft spark, indicating that it will be watching your surroundings, alert.

As you continue down the dirt path, taller grass and other types of more dangerous flora begin to enter your line of sight. Within the tall grass, you see several movements every so often. Some are packs of rattata, others are small flocks of spearow.

Suddenly, a shadow from the skies dive down at you, and you barely dodge it. A wild pidgey has appeared! Pikachu immediately charges its cheeks with power and jumps off of your shoulder, growling.

The pidgey uses its wings to bring up a swirl of wind and sand, forcing you to shield your eyes and face with your arm as your other hand plays with your poliwag's pokeball.

The sand attack pushes pikachu back as well, causing him to miss on his thundershock.

[PokeGear: Pidgey Lv. 4]

The pidgey shoots off a gust of wind at pikachu, but your pikachu is faster and dodges the attack. It seems that this pidgey is smart enough to notice that your pikachu is using ranged attacks only, so it begins to try to dive in and harash your pikachu.

It seems your pikachu as more threatening right now. As it dives in, it clips your pikachu on the arms with its talons, leaving small scratches that grow red. Pikachu seems agitate and shoots more bolts of lightning, but they all miss as the pidgey circles above pikachu and adjusts its distance so that pikachu cannot get a good lock-on on it.

Poliwag appears behind you without catching the Pidgey's attention. As pikachu continues to distract the pidgey, poliwag leaps out from the grass and surrounds pidgey with bubbles.

Unable to move without touching the bubbles, pidgey comes in contact and causes the bubbles to all explode with water. It falls to the ground, where it tries to shake the water off.

This gives pikachu enough time to send a thundershock to the pidgey, dropping it down to critically low health.

You toss a pokeball at the pidgey and catch it.

[Would you like to nickname pidgey?]

You let the pidgey out a moment later, it is croaking and squawking, with barely enough health left to battle. However, it glares at pikachu before nodding towards you. It acknowledges you as its master. It will learn and train with you for as long as you require it.

* * *

><p>After an hour, you are traveling at a suitable speed away from Pallet Town, you see some dust flying in the distance. It turns out to be a small pack of eight rattata charging at you with bloodlust filled eyes. Pikachu, though still licking his wounds from the encounter with your pidgey, leaps off your shoulder with a wince. His cheek-pouches are charging with electricity.<p>

It is known that once far enough away from human civilization, groups of pokemon will attack lonely humans for food. This is especially prevalent in this Kanto nation-state region because of the way pokemon training is encouraged here, causing many smaller prey to be caught and disrupting the natural balance of things.

While only larger pokemon will dare attack trainers or some would even attack towns (such as the rampaging Gyarados or Snorlax), sometimes smaller pokemon will band together to prey on unsuspecting trainers.

You are in a heavily grassed area with enough trees around you to provide natural barriers that cause you to travel in a maze, rather than a straight line.

Doing what you can, you immediately release both poliwag and 'Pigeon'. (You can also choose nick names for poliwag and pikachu if you wish, or simply call them by their race).

There are throwing knives strapped to your boots. A longer machete is strapped sideways on the back of your hips, hidden from view. You have a pistol in your jacket pocket, however it would be wise to conserve ammunition right now.

[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 6]  
>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 3]<br>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 3]  
>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 3]<br>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 2]  
>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 2]<br>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 1]  
>[PokeGear: Rattata Lv. 1]<p>

You command poliwag and pikachu into a reverse triangle formation, just enough time for poliwag to splatter the first wave with a powerful jet of water, pushing the rattata back momentarily.

Pidgey is apparently numbed by pikachu's earlier attack. He has a status ailment that would fall under [Paralysis]. Instead of flying high, all he could muster up was staying on your head.

You command Pidgey to use sand attack, which it does after a moment's pause. The muddy water, dirt, and pieces of grass all fly around, temporarily blinding the rattatas.

You are able to see, with the judicious use of your PokeGear, which rattata has the lowest levels. After finding the two despite their quick movement, you snipe at them with your throwing knives while commanding pikachu and poliwag to use thundershock and bubble respectively.

One of your throws miss, digging your knife deep into the earth, but the other stabs right between the rattata's skull, between the eyes, throwing him literally head over body backwards. Its body tumbles for a few rolls before stopping and twitching. You see a pool of blood forming under the body.

The lead rattata, one that seems a little bigger than the others, screeches and pulls them back. Using their high speed rating, the rats run circles around your group kicking up dust. You can tell the leader from the rest because he has a nasty scar above his left eye. It looks as if something with three claws had tried to scratch his eyes out but missed just enough to allow him usage of his eye.

Before they could cover your group with dust, Pidgey sends a powerful wave of gust at the group, both pushing the rattatas away and smashing one right into the trunk of a tree several meters away. You throw a knife at it, catching it in the stomach and pinning it to the tree trunk before it falls.

At this, the lead rattata roars, enraged. He tackles at you wildly, but rather predictably. You dodge the attack, but it hits your poliwag. You immediately roll and draw your machete into a defensive stance while commanding your poliwag to push it out of the triangle formation.

Poliwag slaps the rattata with its long tail to part-success. It jumps off, but it is physically stronger than your poliwag and jumps back on and attacks with its overly large fangs.

Seeing your childhood friend attacked, and seeing blood drawn, you go into a blind rage. You swing your machete in a wide arc, cutting three rattatas and killing two of them instantly. Then you grab the pidgey on your head and toss it beak-first at the unsuspecting rattata leader. The pidgey squawks in indignation, but its sharp beak still slams into the side of the rattata's head and slashes its back with the pidgey's talons.

You shout for pikachu to help poliwag before turning back to the other rattata. Only two are left standing, another is trying to crawl away but its front legs have been cut off. You bare your teeth in rage at them, the image of your poliwag crying as it bleeds still in your mind.

The two still relatively unharmed rattatas see one look of the dark glare on your face and flee. You angrily toss your machete at the rattata with only two legs and it cuts the rattata's neck clean off.

You turn back to the leader of the pack and take out a pokeball. It is still struggling and dodging your pokemon's attacks, but it is tiring faster than your other pokemon, despite pidgey was already in critical condition to begin with.

Your poke have cornered the rattata leader, and pikachu is slowly picking it off as poliwag is trapping it by tossing puddles of water all around it. You pick up your machete and throwing knives.

Catch it?

You capture the Rattata and let it lose after it struggles within the ball in the palm of your hand for a moment. It growls at you defiantly but after seeing a strange glint in your eyes, it seems subdued, almost even cowed. A look from the pikachu on your shoulder and the poliwag, who you tried to bandage up earlier but failed to do so due to its slimy body, the rattata looked almost ashamed.

But you know why he attacked. Him and his friends were all hungry and attacking you, _especially someone like you_, was their absolutely last resort. You can still see an angry and sad emotion in its eyes, but considering its family and friends have all been but slaughtered, you don't blame it.

But then your pikachu and rattata began feasting on the bodies of the slain. Poliwag and poidgey joins them a moment later. You abstain? You rarely ate raw.

After a moment, rattata, pidgey, and poliwag, all with various levels of injury, go back into their pokeballs to rest. Pikachu seems content in strolling beside you. It occasionally looks up to you and chats to you, "Pika pi, pi pi pika. Pika chu? Pikaka chu... pi chu. Chu pi ka~!" It wipes its mouth. You don't understand a word it is saying, yet.

After a while, you see a guy standing in the middle of nowhere, facing a tree and poking it. You walk up to the man and he turns around. There is a crazed look in his eyes. They are bloodshot and the bags under his eyes don't indicate anything good about him. There is a bit of drool under his mouth.

"I-I used to work for the PokeMart, see?" He says, "Want to try a sample? I... I got a potion!" He holds one up.

You take the potion.

"I... I had to give O... What's h-his n-name?" He seems to be leaking blood from his mouth. He leans forward and grasps his knees. He coughs out a glob of blood before continuing, "I think... I think it was... O... Oak... I need to give him a... package?" Rashes grow all over his body. There were no whites of his eyes anymore, only red. "I... Oouff..."

Blood drips out of his mouth and falls on the ground. You place a finger under his nose and another hand on his neck. He seems to be dead. By the looks of it, it seems to be poison from an Ekans bite or a Koffing gas.

You examine him further and see a bite on the back of his neck. Pikachu looks up at you and points down at the man. He seems to want to eat him. You shake your head, no.

Keep going?

[PokeGear: Pikachu +1 Lv., now Lv. 2!]  
>[PokeGear: Pidgey +1 Lv., now Lv. 5!]<br>[Items: +1 Potion!]

You search the body, mindful of not leaving any prints or hairs or scent. There's nothing you can do right now about psychic prints, but you doubt the police will go that far for one body.

As you suspected, the body was looted of all identification, but the killers seem to have forgotten to take this man's belt. On the flip side of the buckle, you see a small plate hidden between the buckle and the leather. It is a soldier's dog tag, one that read "S. Pilgrim, Viridian PKMN Academy."

You also find two more potions hidden in his pants.

You take the dog tag and the potions and move on. Your map shows a thick forest area ahead before you can reach Viridian. Perhaps it would be wise to catch some more pokemon, or perhaps rush on through?

There is a lake nearby too. Poliwag will heal faster in the water. Your throat seems dry as you think about it, perhaps it's time to go and rest. The journey ahead will take another full day anyway.

Pikachu yawns at your feet.

* * *

><p>You trek towards the lake. It looks cool and tempting. Poliwag pops out of his ball and wags over to the lake, just a few paces behind you and beside pikachu.<p>

You see a person sitting on a Staryu and fishing. A bike lies next to the person, unprotected.

You examine the person from this distance a little more. It seems to be a girl, although she doesn't seem to have the large, bouncy chests that Daisy and Green do. Neither does she have the smooth, curvy body the only other girls of your life do. She is a red-head, with her hair tied in a short pigtail to one side. She is wearing a yellow top and a pair of very tiny shorts. They look more like underwear than shorts, really. So unprotected, and all alone...?

You release pidgey and rattata. They see that they are allowed to rest, and begin to scurry around, looking for food. You glare at them and tell them to work together and do not go too far. They shiver as they meet your eyes and nod slowly.

You also use a potion on the pidgey, getting it out of the immediate danger zone.

The redhead had turned around and was looking at you strangely, "Well, aren't you a weird one. Where're you from, stranger?"

You indicate that you are called Satoshi. You try to be polite but she laughs it off.

"No need to be formal; I'm out here because I'm trying to escape all that red tape and stuff," she punches your arm gently. Apparently you are friends already. "Say, you've got a bunch of pretty diverse pokemon, are you just starting out?"

You nod.

"A silent one, huh?" She eyes you sarcastically.

"..." You reply back, sarcastically.

She slaps your back and laughs, "Alright, alright. My name's Misty, uh... the name's Misty Clearwater. Yeah, haha, laugh it up, very original, I know." She rolls her eyes.

"So Satoshi, are you headed for Viridian? I guess I can head that way later too."

You nod to your poliwag, who is sunbathing on the shoreline and your pikachu, who is just laying around. He looks hungry.

"Ah, hungry, huh?" She nods knowingly, "There's some magikarp in the waters, but I haven't gotten any catch all day. They seem to be hiding from something or another."

You ignore her and strip down to your birthday suit. She seems to be blushing heavily at you for some reason. You shrug and look over at pikachu and tell him not to let anyone touch your stuff. Poliwag already knows the drill.

You grab one of your knives that you occasionally use for carving (even though the Professor told you many times it would wear out the knife) and dive in. The PokeGear on your wrist whistles every once in a while as it sights a pokemon.

You kill two magikarps so far and tossed them up to the shore, but most of them are bone, so you try for more. Then you see it, an aggressive magikarp. Its coloration is different too, it is golden.

It sees you at the same time and charges at you, far faster than you might expect from one of the weakest pokemon on record. Its stats are many times higher in the water and...

Ping!

[PokeGear: Magikarp Lv. 17]

Professor Oak once called you 'The Fighter'. There is more reason to it than your ability to command pokemon to do your bidding in battle, it has to do with how you are able to excel at any sort of fight, no matter what. This ranged from video game simulation fights to hand-to-hand combat with fully grown adult fighters trained in many years of the art of war.

In many ways, you are the pinnacle of the human will to survive and you contain within you the pinnacle of human reflexes at the very least. Compared to many pokemon, you cannot actually match their god-like speed and reflexes, but in certain situations, you can use that to your advantage and win despite all odds.

Odds such as a raging magikarp shooting towards you in the water at speeds most pokemon struggle to reach when on land.

As it flails towards you with a full-on tackle with the hardest part of its body (its head), you twist your body fast enough and just enough that you are able to redirect most of the force behind the blow elsewhere. Your knife slips into its mouth and you try to hold on to its fins to direct it towards the direction of the shoreline you know where you dropped your stuff.

However... its scales are slippery and you don't have large hands...

Your fingers, one by one, slip from its fins as it thrashes its body wildly to try to get you off, to stop the pain. The water is red with blood now and you are a little blinded by all the red. But that doesn't stop your fighting instincts. You want to dominate this creature that dared challenge you...

Your oxygen is running out, the struggling helping it along the way-

-You growl, letting loose precious oxygen bubbles, but it matters not! You stab your free hand into the magikarp's side so hard you make holes in its body. This is enough for you to hold on as you move the blade caught in its mouth to force it to speed towards the shore.

Within moments you land, panting heavily. The magikarp flails wildly on the rocky sand, but without water, it is pathetically weak.

Panting for breath, you make a hand signal to pikachu. He brings over your gear, and you ball the stupid, flailing fish. It's splattering its blood all over the shore, bleeding on you. Ugh.

You're all red.

"W-wow," Misty mutters, "That's kinda hot," before she says in a louder voice, "Hey, Satoshi, are you alright? You have a gash on your chest..."

Ah. So you do. It seems that the magikarp's tailfin was sharper than you thought. It had left several somewhat deep cuts on your chest. They seem to be bleeding a little. Hm. You are a little light headed now.

You resist the urge to just spray a load of potions on your wound. That was a rookie mistake many trainers made the first time they get injured. It usually ends up with them unable to continue their journey.

You wave off Misty who seemed to want to nurse you. Or for you to put on your pants. You ignore her but allow her to clean your wounds off and bandage you.

She cleans off your wounds tenderly. A little slowly too.

After cleaning out all the blood, the cuts don't actually seem that deep. Perhaps magikarp fins are sharper than you thought. Best remember that while eating the fishes or perhaps for future battling strategies.

She wraps your wounds with care. A little too tightly too, but whatever.

[PokeMediKit: 5/20]

You have depleted your medic set, leave you with barely enough to save you should such an event ever happens again. However, it doesn't hurt all that much as you try to move around. Perhaps the adrenaline is still pumping within your blood stream?

All that action has left you a little hungry.

By the looks of it, pidgey and rattata are back, with extras! You see three oddishes on the ground, torn to pieces. They would make excellent seasoning. There is also another rattata corpse. You wonder why your rattata likes to eat its kin. Perhaps it's best not knowing?

You begin to set up camp, making a small parameter. Misty sways to you and tells you she'll be joining you tonight. You shrug, power in numbers and all that stuff. She seems dejected for some reason. Oh well.

Pikachu helps you start a small fire by creating a small spark, helping you begin the roast. You have two magikarp-on-a-stick split roasting over an open fire. You tear into one of the magikarps as your pokemon devour the other, along with the oddishes and the rattata. Misty seems content just sitting to the side and eating her canned fruits.

As the darkness comes, Misty tells you that she doesn't have a sleeping bag. She seems to be hinting at sharing a sleeping bag, but you never know with females. They are so strange at times.

[You nicknamed your Magikarp Mister Fish]  
>[Mister Fish Lv. 17]<p>

* * *

><p>Misty pouts cutely when you say to her that you are fine with sleeping in the open, but she consents and busies herself with setting up some flimsy defenses around the camp. The worst of the predators come out at night. Why, this one time, when you had to infiltrate a bandit camp... Ah, no time to daydream!<p>

You ask her what's got her so down. Gently, of course.

"Ah, haha, whatever gave you that idea, Satoshi?" She laughs at you while scratching the back of her head nervously. "I... I just have a lot on my mind lately. Don't worry about it."

You inquire further, after all if she dozes off while it is her turn to be on watch, something bad could happen.

"Well, it's nothing really. Just... It's just some family business that's taken a turn for the worst, that's all," She tries and fails to smile at you. It seems like something is really bothering her, underneath all that female exterior.

You unroll the bedroll for her.

You have built a nice, slow fire at the center of the camp, with plenty of scrap wood and grass on one side. Some rocks and large sticks that rattata and staryu were able to move surrounds the camp in a half-meter to one meter tall wall in a circle. It isn't enough to really stop anything, but it should be enough to keep certain more dangerous critters away, like ghost types. Most ghost types cannot enter boundaries easily after all...

Soon, the sun will be set completely. Perhaps, in the case of a last resort, magikarp might even come in handy. Release and make friends? If not, Poliwag and Pikachu are well rested, as is Misty's Staryu. They seem to get along well enough to be rotated on some of the watches.

Before the sun goes down all the way, you skim the guide illustrated by Delia. It turned out to be some kind of prank. Instead, it taught about pokemon breeding, of all things.

You also get Misty's PokeGear number, which she seems happy to exchange with you.

Before the night came completely, you released the magikarp near the water. It took one flop towards the water before it realized three knives seem to have dug themselves between it and the water in that single instant. It turns around shakily and looks at you through its water eyes. You can see its gills trembling.

"You almost fell in the water and drifted away, Mister Fish." You say to it, "Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?"

It shakily replies with a, "kah-karp," before it acknowledges you as its master. You nod after a moment. It could meet your glaze well enough and it doesn't seem to be thinking of stabbing you in the back or something. You spray a potion on it and introduce it to your other pokemon. Then you ball it and keep the ball close.

Sometime during the night, you allowed pikachu and poliwag rest and swapped them out for pidgey and rattata while Misty did the same with her Staryu for her Shellder. She seems nice enough, though she some times looks at your magikarp's ball with an envious glaze.

A few hours before dawn, rattata woke you with a rought nudge of his tail. Something seemed to be circling your camp, even you can feel it, hear it. You shake Misty's shoulder and wake her. She opens her eyes and gets down without a word, unlike what many untrained civilians would do at her age. Strange.

A flap of wings...

A screech of beaks...

You see, with your light adjusted eyes, a flock of birds of some kind. They are birds of prey, hunting in the night. They have seen your camp...

...You immediately unball all your pokemon, even magikarp. You'll need all the help you can get. Just your naked eyes alone, you see over 20 birds...

Beside you, Misty releases her Staryu and a Seal. Good, they could come in handy working beside pikachu, perhaps?

You make a sweep with your PokeGear and the results shake you.

[Fearow Lv. 22]  
>[Spearow Lv. 4]<br>[Spearow Lv. 4]  
>[Spearow Lv. 4]<br>[Spearow Lv. 4]  
>[Spearow Lv. 4]<br>[Spearow Lv. 4]  
>[Spearow Lv. 4]<br>[Spearow Lv. 4]  
>[Spearow Lv. 4]<br>[Spearow Lv. 3]  
>[Spearow Lv. 3]<br>[Spearow Lv. 3]  
>[Spearow Lv. 3]<br>[Spearow Lv. 3]  
>[Spearow Lv. 3]<br>[Spearow Lv. 3]  
>[Spearow Lv. 3]<br>[Spearow Lv. 3]  
>[Spearow Lv. 3]<br>[Spearow Lv. 3]  
>[Spearow Lv. 3]<br>[Spearow Lv. 2]

[PokeGear: Too Many Targets, Cannot Scan All]

Misty's Current Team

[Staryu Lv. 15]  
>[Seal Lv. 12]<br>[Shellder Lv. 8]

"Misty, ice volley to the west!" You shout at her the same moment you signal for pidgey to us gust. The shards of a thousand pieces of ice came forth in a cold wind from the Seel's mouth, only to be enhanced by pidgey's gust into an icy tornado of death.

It would have wiped out all of the Spearows and brought you and early breakfast, if it was not for the presence of the Fearow. In a single beat of its giant wings, it pushed a powerful gust directly at your combined attack, canceling it out.

As the Spearows begin to dive, you signal for water bubbles to cover your escape. Poliwag is joined by Shellder as they spray behind you.

"Run to the lake!" You shout, but you see that, in the dark, Misty has tripped and fell. Growling, you grab her by the waist and carry her like a bride. She is actually pretty light, you notice. "Come on..." You grit your teeth. The Route 1 shouldn't be this dangerous.

"I think I only sprained by ankle, I'll be fine-"

"No time! Talk later!"

The Fearow made a noise similar to a bird's scoff and dove in, ignoring the water bubbles. Just as planned. "Thundershock!"

The water was not enough to stop the giant bird, but it was enough to coat it in a layer of water. But even then, the Fearow shrugged off the bolt of electricity and screeched. It was like having the sound of nails against chalkboard coming at you from all sides-causing you to drop Misty into the lake.

She splatters into the water, sputtering, but you both have no time to complain. The flock is coming. Without caring, you command Misty's pokemon as if they are your own.

"Seel, Icy Wind, again!" You roar at it, and it instantly obeys. Your pidgey joins in to make another icy hell, but the Fearow moves in to bat it away again. Just as planned. It was all a distraction for your pikachu to hit the Fearow with thundershock-in the eyes!

Blinded, the Fearow screeches again, this time in anger. It thrashes blindly, accidentally killing several of its allies with its sharp talons. You know now you have a chance.

"Staryu, distract the Fearow with Spin!" The pokemon acts instinctively, as if it understands your commands on an genetic or mythic level, knowing exactly what you mean.

Instead of charging and hitting the Fearow directly, it spins around it, using its hardened limbs to cut at the Fearow's flailing wings.

"Seel, Icy Wing combination with Pigeon!" You shout, as the flock of Spearows all begin to squawker in panic. This time, the icy winds catch the confused flock, lost without its leader, and shred their wings, along with their bodies, into bloody pieces. All that is left is the Fearow, who seems to have recovered enough of its sight to throw the Staryu off it and fly up into the sky.

You squint up... you think... it is... diving?

"Let's do this, pikachu," you nod to your Pikachu. He nods back at you, eyes with a dangerous fire. A fire that wants to destroy and consume. Its cheeks begin to sparkle as it gathers its many torrents of power within its tiny body.

"Pidgey, give him a boost, pikachu..."

The Fearow was closing in at an insane pace. It is smart and it knows that you are the leader of this small group. It beak shines as it focuses its power at the tip, ready to drill into your skull and shatter your body into a thousand pieces.

As it closes in on you, time slows.

Your mind notices the strange weather. It was very cloudy, as if it was about the rain. The Fearow looked like it had tunnel vision, seeing only you and none of your surroundings. It wanted to killed you. To eat you. To destroy you utterly. But...

...You don't give it any chance. Just as you ready yourself, pikachu swings higher into the air, thanks to pidgey's toss. His entire body is like lightening, sparkling in several meters in every direction. Even his eyes were too bright for you to look directly into. You raise an arm to shield yourself partly, but you cannot help but keep trying to look up.

The Fearow notices pikachu too late, its eyes widen as its wings flap, trying to get away. But it is too late-

"-**VOLT TACKLE!**"

It was a second that seemed to last for many minutes. Pikachu let loose enough electricity to keep himself afloat in the air temporarily, prolonging the Fearow's pain. By the end of it, the Fearow's entire body was trembling as a thousand tiny sparks danced on its feathers, biting into its skin. It was still alive as it fell, its body smoking and its heart beating erratically.

It fell with a splatter, blood seeping out of its mouth and into the lake.

There was a moment of silence, other than the Fearow's soft croaking. It was within moments of death-

-Then rattata dug into its guzzard splashing your team with the conquered beast's blood.

[Pikachu Lv. +3!]  
>[Pidgey Lv. +1!]<br>[Rattata Lv. +1!  
>[Poliwag Lv. +1!]<br>[Pikachu Lv. 5!]  
>[Pidgey Lv. 6!]<br>[Rattata Lv. 7!  
>[Poliwag Lv. 6!]<p>

* * *

><p>You feel your eyelids droop a little, having not slept all that well last night. Perhaps a little nap later wouldn't hurt. You direct rattata and pidgey to gathering the corpses while balling poliwag. You tell Pikachu to start a fire roast.<p>

You turn to Misty, who is stumbling out of the water as she balls her pokemon. She seems to be ignoring her pain in favor of looking at you in wonder. "H-how? It took me months to g-get Seel to do anything!"

You shrug. You're just that good. "Let me see your injury," you say, reminding her that she was hurt. You carry her back to camp and see that pikachu had already start on the fire.

There were about 30 spearow bodies laying around the fire too, most of them with several jagged needles of ice piercing them from all sides. Luckily the ice froze most of the blood, or else the camp would smell a lot worse right now.

You plop Misty on a soft tuft of grass and tell her to show you her wound. She shivers a little and pouts. "You shouldn't have dropped me in the water, Sato..." She whines at you.

You, being the gentleman, take off your jacket and hand it to her. She nods shyly at you, thanking you before stripping and using your jacket for warmth.

You look down her long leg and see that her left ankle is a little red and swollen. You don't really have any experience on what to do in this situation, so you tell her to let Seel out.

As Seel comes out, it swallows one of the spearows whole before looking over at you sheepishly. "Seel, seel," it apologizes.

You wave it off and tell it to form a cast of ice over the bandages you'll place on Misty's ankle. It looks really swollen now. "You know, I could probably walk just-eek!" Misty tries to get up, but slips and falls back into your arms.

You sigh.

By now, the fire is up and running and the sun is up; the sky had cleared, relatively. While all the pokemon, including your magikarp of all things, are eating, you begin a split roast of the Fearow. There was no way you could eat it all, pikachu had already eaten one of the Fearow's wings. His blood-covered face looks kind of adorable.

You brush your fingers against Misty's legs and rub against her feet, causing her to squeak and moan. "A-ah, not t-there, Sa-Sato..." After a while, you deem her well enough, you wrapped her ankle up and put it in the icy cast that Seel made. It would have to do for now.

As you sat down to chow down, Misty spoke up.

"You owe me a new bike, you know?" Misty says, from behind her roasted spearow leg.

You look at her with an eyebrow raised in question.

She points at your pikachu, "when he used... what ever that was, Volt Tackle? Well, he landed on my bike."

You turn to the bike. It was a charred mess of metal.

You shrug, "Well, it's your bike's fault for being there in the first place. Plus, I did save your life," you add.

Misty pouts and punches you lightly on the arm, "Well, my knight in shining armor," she says sarcastically, "do you want to carry me all the way to Viridian?"

Honestly, she isn't that heavy. Probably just a little heavier than your backpack. Still, a better way to move her around would be nice.

Mhm... crisp, roasted Fearow legs. Its tender meat melts in your mouth, full of flavor for the victor.

You ponder on what to do with Misty as you bite into the Fearow with your pokemon buddies.

* * *

><p><strong>An Instant Message<strong>

You received a message from Oak: [Viridian City Gym Leader missing. Surrounding wild pokemon have gone feral and have been inflicted with fast-growth virus. Mission danger level increased.]

* * *

><p>You cut open the Fearow and find several skeletons of half-digested pokemon. One of them seems to be wearing a strange, elastic head band. You take it out and wash it. It has strange little bulbs all over the head band, but your PokeGear identifies this item as a mind-linking item called [<strong>Experience Share<strong>]. It seems a little worn out, but still usable if you wished to place it on any of your pokemon.

Misty seems content enough to actually go back to sleep. You allow her a few hours, what with all the excitement. She cuddles against your jacket, the only thing she is wearing, besides her underwear.

You send out your magikarp. You test it out by telling it to go deep under water and then shooting out. Apparently this is a variation of Tackle.

You learn that it can also headbutt, flail, and tail attack. Unlike the video games that came out recently simplifying the world beyond belief, tail attack hurts. You know from first hand experience. A hand moves up unconsciously as you rub your chest. It still hasn't healed all the way yet.

As the sky clears up, a rainbow appears. There seems to be something golden flying on the rainbow, towards you...

As the golden bird draws closer, Misty looks up to where you are staring and gasps. You ball rattata.

"W-what is that? I've never seen anything..." She trails off.

You immediately raise your PokeGear up to it for a scan, but all that returns is:

[Unknown Pokemon: Lv. 100+?]

You turn on the record feature of your PokeGear, taking this video in as best as you can. The mysterious golden bird seems to be flying leisurely towards you.

You move back, not daring the aggravate the powerful being that was flying towards you. You know exactly what it means to have a [Lv. 100+?] rating: the sign of a so-called 'legendary' pokemon. These are each pokemon that can affect much more than what regular pokemon could. Many can, each, shatter entire continents in power, should they wish it. Although the science society at large has 'proven' that these pokemon do not exist, certain powerful Professors know differently...

As it flies over you, it shines of golden light, blinding Misty and any other surrounding creature. It makes no sound; you can only hear the flapping of wings. Even you are temporarily blinded.

By the time you can see again, it is gone along with the rainbow. Strangely enough, you feel something in your pants pocket. You look down and see a single radiant, mystical feather of rainbow colors. It shines with a golden light, occasionally changing its color from a rainbow hue to that of pure gold. You stash it away before Misty can see it.

The rest of the trip was surprisingly uneventful. You balled all of your pokemon except for pikachu. Misty kept talking, about how she only remembers a golden light, no bird pokemon. Good thing you have a video of it. But should you show it to Oak...?

* * *

><p>At the end of the road, just outside the city borders of Viridian City, you see two people. They both seem to be in professional uniform of officer workers, but they are also both wearing a white pin-badge on their chests with a large, red 'R' on it. You recognize them as operatives of a different agency. Hopefully they do not know your face.<p>

One of them is a woman with long, red hair. It was a crimson hue that you know has to be dyed. The other is a man with short, purplish hair. Surprisingly it actually looks natural.

They see you and start approaching-

The Rockets see you and Misty, who is still riding Staryu, and they look sympathetic. The woman approaches you first with a warm smile.

"Hello, your friend doesn't look so good, would you like some help to a competent doctor?" She ask with a friendly smile. She looks genuinely concerned and more than eager to help.

Misty seems to be a little shaken, so you begin to tell them negative before being cut off by the man. He also approaches you with a friendly smile and with an outstretched hand.

"Where are our manners?" He laughs heartily while holding the woman back by her shoulder. "I'm James, and this is my partner Jessie. We're part of the Rocket Foundation for the Betterment of Mankind, or Team Rocket, for short. Our organization is large and is currently working in Viridian city. The city itself is only functional at this point because of us," He says proudly before adding, "the main reason for this problem is actually because the disappearance of the Gym Leader and the sudden appearance of overly aggressive wild pokemon in this region."

Jessie pushes James back and adds to his speech, "But at the moment Team Rocket is providing food, water, and power for the city. It should be safe as long as you are inside the city limits... because we, Team Rocket, are running most of the administrative work and city protection at this point... now how about we escort you and your girlfriend here to a doctor? You both don't look very well, did you... eat any of the wild pokemon out there?"

Misty looks reluctant, but you noticed that she was having cold sweats for the past hour. Her lips look a little pale too. Pikachu whispers in your ear that he doesn't trust these Rockets, but you both will need help. Also, he adds that there are surveillance cameras watching you, so be careful of what you do.

You smile at them smoothly, saying, "I'm sorry, but we are going to the Pokemon Center right now, we've been attacked by several wild pokemon earlier traveling Route 1."

"Route 1, you say?" Jessie asks, her entire demeanor changing to curiosity before settling back to sympathy. Her expressions and tone do not change much, so the waver in her voice was barely noticeable even to you. "Did you come from Pallet Town, by any chance?"

"Ah, no," Misty cuts in, placing herself between you and Jessie. "We were moving by sea until we hit Route 1.

"Oh, I see, that's a... pity," Jessie clicks her tongue. She turns back to you and smiles again. "Well, James can take you to the Pokemon Center, Team Rocket will take care of your expenses, don't you worry. We take special care of pokemon trainers..."

She turns away as James hooks his arms around you and Misty, or tries to at least. Misty's Staryu moves her away before he got too close and you dodged him instinctively. He blinks at you two and then laughs.

"Alright, I'll guide you two to the Pokemon Center," He says suavely, "Come along now, we wouldn't want you to wander off. There are parts of the city that are not safe, after all."

Misty moves closer to you as the trip to the Pokemon Center goes on. She seems nervous around Team Rocket members.

From what you can see, the southern part of the town is filled with a small-town suburbia, but as you draw into the city, taller, larger buildings begin to appear. The city is crawling with Team Rocket members. Though only a few of them are Grunts, wearing the black uniform with the red 'R' on the front, there are many within the city. Your analytical mind quickly shuffles them into categories of threat level: "Rocket Grunts, Rocket Operatives, Rocket Lass, Rocket Bugcatcher, Rocket Scientist..." and so on.

As you walk into the Pokemon Center, James jogs ahead, waving at the frightened looking Nurse Joy at the counter. "Hey there, Ms. Joy, these trainers are under my organization's endorsement, treat them well, would you?" He laughs heartily as he walks away, "I need to use the restroom, and then I will have to go back on duty, you see?" He says to you, "There's more trainers who come out of Route 1 who might need... help."

The click of his hard leather and rubber boots signal his rushing away.

You turn to Nurse Joy. She seems upset. She doesn't look like she likes you very much right now. In fact, she looks like, if she could get away with it, she would stab you.

As James walked into the bathroom, you leaned in, close to the Nurse Joy and whispered, "So, give me the real scoop here. Are the scientologists branching out into those "R" guys?" You winked at her.

Nurse Joy smiles awkwardly at you. Her eyes flickered between the bathroom and you before answering in a loud voice, "I don't know what you are talking about, sir. Is there anything we at this Pokemon Center can help you with?" Her voice was nervous, but you could feel a cold airs to it. She is being forced to... do something? But what?

Not for the first time, you wish you had a psychic pokemon. No matter, you'll clear through this like everything else you do: by destroying the opposition utterly. But first, what is your opposition? At this point Professor Oak has not initiated hostilities with Team Rocket, in fact, no one has. Still, your original mission here was to find out about the disappearance of the courier and to pick up the package.

"Well, my companion and I," you lean an arm on the counter, letting your pikachu get off. He wanders around the room, on your command. "Were attacked while traveling Route 1, if you would believe it. I mean, there should be barely anything there in the first place right?"

Nurse Joy nods at you shakily, "Of course sir, d-do you have any injuries?" She asks, her professional training taking over whatever else she was thinking. "I will bring your pokemon in for healing too, if you wish?"

"Ah-" You see James walk out of the bathroom.

"Hey, so trainer and trainerette!" He waves as he walks closer, "How about seeing a doctor or grabbing something to eat, eh? My treat?"

"No, thanks," you respond as Misty tries to shrink back behind you, hiding from James' view. "We just need rest, and the Pokemon Center should be able to provide it just fine."

"Ah... of course, of course, I'll be on my way then, ah, who were you again?" He smiles at you with an out stretched hand.

Behind James, you see your pikachu hoping around the room, picking off small devices from the walls with his mouth. Bugs, it seems. So most of the Pokemon Center is under surveillance then? Pikachu lets off a silent spark, overloading the cameras in his mouth, before spitting its chewed up remains out and stashing them in its palms.

"I'm Satoshi, " you say, forced to shake his hand.

James turns to the girl behind you and his eyes narrow just barely. You can see a twitch in his left, lower eyelid. "And you are?"

"Misty," she says, louder than you expected.

"Of course, Misty. Well, if you are hungry, just ask anyone from the Rocket Organization and they can point you to me, James. Lunch is on me, if you call," he makes a phone-sign with his hands before turning around. "Chao~!"

Below her breath, you hear Misty mutter, "Creep."

You turn back to Nurse Joy. "Look," your eyes sharp and your voice cold, "we were attacked by feral pokemon, a giant Fearow leading a pack of Spearows on Route 1. That's not supposed to happen at all. But it doesn't matter. We all digested the Fearow, and my companion is injured."

"I-I, of course, sir." The nurse muttered, looking down. She seems more frightened by you than the Rockets at that moment. "If you can bring your companion around..."

Staryu hovers over the counter.

"...Or over, I suppose, the counter, I'll have Chansey give her a look-over. It doesn't look like any limbs have been severed so she should be fine..."

"And the feral pokemon?"

Nurse Joy shakes her head, "I'm sorry, there's no information on that. It seems like there is a media blockage in Viridian at the moment, no one goes in and no one comes out. I'm surprised you are even able to come to the Pokemon Center, honestly..."

"Look, I'm not a damn Rocket Grunt, so tell me what's going on," you growl, blunt and straight to the point.

"I-I..." she looks away.

You hold your hand out below the counter for pikachu. After you feel some weight you pick your hands up and slam them down on the counter. A dozen spy cameras clunker out of your palms, still smoking.

Joy's eyes widen and she looks at you strangely. "A-are you an Elite?"

"No."

Just like that, what little hope that glowed in her eyes were put out. "I... see... Well, I can tell you what I know, Satoshi. About two weeks ago, the Gym Leader left on a business trip. He takes a lot of those, so no one thought of it differently. But... his plane crashed and no survivors were found, yet his body was not found either... And just after that happened, giant pokemon appeared out of the forests west and north of Viridian. Golems show up instead of geodudes, nidokings instead of nidorans... it was a disaster! I... oh..."

She sits down shakily, "I treated some of the pokemon who have been attacked and some that have been captured... What I can tell... what I can tell is that it is genetically modified virus that is supposed to induce ultra fast growth and a rabies-like blood-haze in pokemon. I... in humans, some go on without problems, but others... others die."

You couldn't help but feel pale at that moment.

"I... I see." You say. "Alright, fine. Can I get room and board for the night, along with my companion?"

"That's of no problem," Nurse Joy says, "Since about a week ago, practically all trainers have disappeared from the city, or at least from the Pokemon Center. I don't know where they all have gone..."

You nod and tell Misty to get herself treated first. You nod to pikachu and he follows you out of the room. Once you have found a place that is cleared, you turn on your protected line and dial a number.

_BeepBeep..._

"Hello, sir."

"_Ah, I've been expecting you. How was your trip?_"

"It was well, but we encountered some bumps in the road and some sun."

"_Hm, I see..._" He pauses for a moment, "_And about the supplies?_"

"The delivery passed me."

"_Hm, that's no good._" He pauses. You can hear him taking a puff of his cigar before he continues, "_See it to the end then. Tell me what's up, alright? And be careful of more bumps, alright?_"

"Of course, sir."

"_Is there anything else?_"

"Nothing, sir. There's just _a lot_of sun. Fills the eyes, hurts, you know?"

"_I'll look into that, you take care of yourself, alright?_"

"Of course, sir." _Click. BeepBeep..._

You have reported your situation to Professor Oak. You told him about the pokemon attacks, the dead courier, and that Viridian is filled with Rockets. He tells you not the worry, but focus on your primary mission: getting the package and getting out of there.

You wipe your forehead.

You feel a little sold sweat and a little dizzy. The world isn't spinning around you yet, so you can still operate. What to do now...?

* * *

><p><strong>Interlude<strong>

_...The rainbow feather in your pants pocket heats up, nearly burning your skin. You snatch it out quick, but it slips from your hand. As pikachu draws close, curiosity glimmering in his eyes, you watch in morbid shock as the feather hovers before you, inches from your face... Its golden light spreads, washing over you and your pikachu, so warm..._

* * *

><p><strong>Strange Feather<strong>

Your muscles groan as you try to move. Where are you? Why are you laying down? You blink the sleep out of your eyes and wonder why you feel two heavy weights on your body.

You open your eyes, it is dusk now, the sky outside swirls with a beautiful mixture of orange, red, and violet. You look across the room at the clock ticking on the walls; it is 4:35 PM.

By your bed, Misty had propped a chair, waiting for you to awaken, but apparently she fell asleep on your lap next to pikachu. She senses your moment and raises her head, "Aah... you're awake..." She yawns and stretches. You see that she is wearing your jacket over her shoulders, with only a tiny, yellow top beneath.

You nod, seeing pikachu wake too.

"You, I... Oh, I'm sorry Satoshi," Misty sighs, "Nurse Joy said that the virus mutates rapidly, so she gave me a shot and it... but... We-I-that is..." She stutters, looking rather unhappy with herself. "I didn't think you would collapse in some hidden room in the pokemon center, Satoshi. I... I'm not going to ask what you were doing there, but you should be more careful."

You shrug and smile sheepishly.

"Oh! By the way, your pokemon are healed," Misty hands you your belt, with your pokeballs attached. "Your magikarp seems rather restless, almost as if she was about to evolve."

"She?"

"Oh? You didn't know? It's a girl, Satoshi," Misty giggles, "But I guess normal people can't tell... Ah, so what's your plan now? Where are you headed? I'm sure you're here to do _something_, right? Even I noticed you're far too skilled to be... well, you don't even have a trainer's license, so I don't know what... but I'm glad you're not a Rocket." She says, blushing and brushing her hair back, behind her ear. You found that her face turns into a nice shade of pink and red when she is embarrassed.

You also see a small pile of fried electronics hidden in a corner of the room. There are little gnawing marks all over them. It seems that pikachu has been busy.

"I need to go buy some supplies," you say, thinking about your mission. You give Misty a quick look, causing her to blush again, and say, "you look like you need some better survival gear too."

"I..." Misty sounded like she was about to protest before she caught herself. She is probably hiding something. "Yes, well, I never expected there to be a giant flock of spearows in Route 1, of all places, so, yeah!" She adds in a toen that is a mix between playful and indignant, with her hands on her hips.

You scratch your head, you were not prepared for that encounter either.

"Nurse Joy helped me analyze the Fearow remains afterwards too," Misty adds hastily. At your surprised look, she gives a huff, pouting, "What? You didn't expect me not to keep a sample of what I ate, did you? Sheesh!"

You shrug at her.

She sighs again and brushes a hand through her hair, "Alright, you ought to thankful how lucky we were, for two reasons, Sato... First, that Fearow had been weakened because it had not eaten for over a week. Nurse Joy says it was also probably blindly attacking by that point due to the virus, so it would have been felled by a well placed strike." She stares at you pointedly about this.

"Also, the virus inside, if we had come a day later, we probably we have already died. But then, you ate a lot more than me... even Nurse Joy was surprised you didn't fall down dead earlier this morning." She looks down for a moment and then adds, "Thankfully, there has been no ill effects on our pokemon." She trails off.

"Other effects?" You question.

"Uh... well, your rattata seems a little too hyper when Nurse Joy was giving him a physical, we had to ball him up. You might have to be careful training that one, he has too much energy to be that level..."

You are able to grab a quick supper with Misty before you are set. Perhaps it is time to check out the PokeMart? Or perhaps something else?

**Viridian Encounters! Pt. 1**

The soft fur of pikachu as he rubs his side against your cheek surprises you. Considering how most electric pokemon use their fur as a sort of weapon, be it Pin Missile, Swift, of some other type of meta-electric-type attack, it is surprising how feather-like pikachu's fur is. At your staring, pikachu turns you to in question, before shrugging.

"So, where to, Sato?" Misty jumps in front of you and twirls around with a smile. She is no longer wearing your jacket. You realized that your pistol was snugly fitted in on the inside pocket, but she has said nothing about it. Curious.

It seems like neither Misty nor Nurse Joy searched your pikachu, because as you donned your jacket, he performed a stealthy sleight of hand and slid the **R****a****i****n****b****o****w****W****i****n****g**in, just next to your gun.

"I need to head to the PokeMart for some supplies, would you like to come along?" You ask, sliding a hand under her waist, holding her and keeping her from running away. She is an important resource, after all, if she is indeed adept at working with water pokemon; two of your five pokemon are water type. "You look like you need some basic armor, if nothing else." You say, looking down at Misty.

All she has on now is a pair of short shorts and a very tiny and very tight yellow t-shirt.

"Ah, well, this was all that I had to spare, the other clothes are in the wash," She looked down, blushing.

"No armor?" While most trainers don't bother with armor, it is recommended to use armor when taking prolonged trips out of major human settlements. Many pokemon find unarmored humans to be very easy prey.

"Like I said, Mister, it's Route 1," she pouted, reminding you of her earlier statement.

You frown. You like to be prepared. What's wrong with being prepared? "Still..." You add, before acquiescing, "how about we get you something at the 'Mart, then?"

She shuffles her feet. You notice she is wearing a pair of well-worn sneakers that seem to be in surprisingly good shape for something of that apparent age. "I... I was going to trade my bike in for some money..."

You fight off an urge to slap your forehead. "Fine," you say as you walk out of the Pokemon Center, "then we'll just have to scrounge up some money while we're here... It shouldn't be too hard, survival gear isn't that expensive to trainers with licenses."

You turn you head back and peak over your shoulder, "you do have a license, right?"

She fiddles with the buckles of her shorts, not willing to meet you in the eyes. "Well..."

You fight off another urge to slap your forehead.

"Let's just go..." You barely suppress the growl in your tone. Misty smiles at you apologetically, clapping her hands together bowing to you until you couldn't keep the stern expression on you face any longer.

Viridian city is surprisingly large. It could be divided up into four major sections, a north west section that consists of a large park and many suburban housing, a north east section that consists of the city armory, police and fire stations, with the Gym close to the heart of the city, a south west section that holds some office buildings, apartments, and the Pokemon Center, and a south east section that held the PokeMart, along with a wide assortment of stores in the commercial district.

By the time you had finally arrived at the Pokemart (by foot), the sky was already dark. The commercial district had already lit up with all sorts of decorations and Misty was more than happy to be here. Apparently she loved civilization so much, that it brings up the question of why she was away in the first place. However, her giddy mood was almost infectious so you did not actually take the chance to ask her.

"This is almost like a date," she says, skipping ahead of you.

You look at your buddy pikachu in question, and he shrugs at you. He doesn't understand women any more than you do.

"And~ we're here!" She says as she jumps on the sensory pad that causes the automatic door to slide open. You are shaken out of your thoughts or whatever was causing you to be in a reverie a soft sound of a bell '_dings_' and you walk into the bright, fluorescent lights that nearly blind your senses. Ah, it has been a while since you have been in such an artificial habitat...

You look around. It looks, in part, like a convenience store, though perhaps three or four times larger. There are foods, drinks, and alcohols in many racks. You can see many rows of PokeJunk Food and PokeSoft Drinks in icy containers. But on the other side of the store are rows of pokeball packets, greater pokeball packets, and an assortment of pokemon trainer gear.

Survival armor are here too. The type of survival gear you wear is the a type of proto-kevlar enforced, titanium weave, with responsive auto-repairing nanotechnology, which makes up for most of what is inside your clothing. It is a higher-level technology type of gear compared to what is available, but Professor Oak takes care of his associates. For Misty, you'll just have to settle for an reinforced body armor and leg armor. Would you like to browse the store with Misty? She seems eager to make this seem like a... date?

[Survival Gear (Misty's size): 15,000 Poke]  
>[PokeBall: 200 Poke]<br>[Potion: 300 Poke]  
>[Universal Poison Heal: 100 Poke]<br>[Universal Paralyze Heal: 200 Poke]  
>[Universal Burn Heal: 250 Poke]<br>[Medkit Refills: 1 Per 25 Poke]

there isn't much else here, after talking to the clerk working at the counter (who is not your contact), you found out that they are actually waiting on a new shipment of goods that should have come in about two weeks ago. There seems to be some pet-trained pokemon for sell too, but they are far too domesticated for battle.

"Ron?" The clerk shrugs nonchalantly, "I dunno, I guess he called in sick today or something. Why'd you ask?"

You mention that Ron is a friend and you have been out of the city for a while. You just arrived looking for him, but you couldn't come in contact with him so you have been looking around. The 'Mart is actually your last stop because you didn't expect him to be at work either.

"Yeah, he is a bit of a lazy bum, isn't he?" The man shrugs. He isn't paid enough to make sure of everything anyway. He types some things into the computer and nods to you, "Alright, if you buy some stuff, I can print his address on the back, if you like."

**Viridian Encounters! Pt. 2  
><strong>  
>You wave at Misty, telling her that you cannot get her the armor set right now. She looks somewhat sad, but she hides it well with a fake smile. You are surprised at yourself, that you can tell between her fake expressions and real expressions already. But you don't worry about it. You are just smart, right?<p>

"Alright, lessee here, 4 pokeballs, 2 potions, 3 antidotes, and 15 units of medkit... That'll be... Lemme ring that up for ya, 'k kid?" The clerk turns to his machine, slightly embarrassed that he couldn't calculate it in his head, "Right! 2075 Poke, and with tax... ah, right you're a trainer right? That'll be all then."

You transfer the money to his machine through your OmnitoolPokeGear. He nods, satisfied. "Alright, his address is..." He scribbles something down on the back of your receipt and hands the slip of paper to you. "Here you go. Man, Ron sure is popular... he had some other dudes asking about him a few days ago too..."

You blink.

"Ah, some chick with big ass knockers, you know, huge DD's, and crazy long hair. It was dyed, I think. I mean, normal people can't get that red color, can they? But yeah, man, her knockers were _huge..._" He drools a little. You try to stand a little further back so that his spittle does not spray on you. "Uh, there was some girly man with purple hair too. They... I dunno what they wanted with Ron, I just told 'em Ron was biking outta town or something... Those dudes don't look like they are up to any good."

As you are about to leave, the clerk calls you back. You frown and turn around, seeing him waving at you, "Hey, dude, I think you forgot something."

Your frown grows as you walk back. You have everything in your pack, so what did you forget?

As you walk towards the obese man, he tilts his head down slightly, a nearly silent motion for you to move closer. You see no harm in that, seeing as you could easily kill the man and rip his spine out without much hassle. You walk closer and he leans forward slightly, "Dude, Ron totally told me this, ta give you this shit if a little dude comes in. I guess that's you, man."

He slides you a package covered in coarse, brown paper in a manner he might have thought as discrete. He looks like an idiot. But you don't tell him that. That would be mean. The package itself is about as large as a hardcover book, perhaps somewhere around one thousand pages. However, it is surprisingly light for its size. Or you are just strong. Either way, you stash it in your backpack. If the Rockets were watching you, they would have already saw it anyway.

The seal on this package is similar to the one that Oak specifically told you that it should be, but you don't know for sure. However, you also do not know what the contents are, so you have no way of making sure it is really what you are here to retrieve.

You walk back to the exit, nodding to the clerk in thanks nevertheless. Misty studies you, "What was that all about?"

**Viridian Nightlife! Pt. 1**

The echo of the soft chirp of the cicadas welcomed you as you walked down the road with Misty hanging off of your arm. She was very insistent on doing this for some reason, and you had little reason to refuse. If worse comes the worst, you could always use her body as a shield, probably. The night grew dark, and most of the roads to the Academy at this hour were not lit. The Academy itself was an institution that only worked for prospective pokemon trainers. Thus it should be closed by now. The nearby pokemon college may be still lit however, but it is some distance away.

After you exited the PokeMart, you ducked into an alley with Misty and let out your Rattata. After holding it down by its neck and baring your teeth at it, it understood your plan and moved east. Pikachu assures you that it knows where to go. Or else.

As you walked down the road, with only the moon to light your path, you see several forms coming out of the wood works.

It was two Super Nerds, at least that was how your mind categorized them immediately. They wore plaid, collared shirts with thick, bottle glasses that didn't help them at all. Both had pokeballs out.

"Well, well, looks like a couple of kids. Man, they probably don't got much on them, but ya know," the one in front said. You labeled him as Super Nerd A.

Super Nerd B smirked at you but then started leering at Misty, "Eh, it don't matter. We get to do what we want. You kids took the wrong day to walk around, the police are all hunkered down cuz'a all the Rockets in town, right Johny?"

"But we're nice guys, aren't we, Arnie?" Super Nerd A shrugged at B, "How about we have a... pokemon battle?"

"Man, you're such a battle junkie. But the kid's got a pikachu, so why not?" B smiled with A.

Both let loose their pokemon, a grimer (Lv. 15) and a zubat (Lv. 8) respectively. The Super Nerd B kept looking at Misty in a way that made something wild within you want to growl and smash his face against the cement. Many times.

**Viridian Nightlife! Pt. 2**

"Alright, then, pikachu stay back," You call out loudly, "Misty, you take care of the grimer and its trainer and I'll work with this zubat."

She nods quickly and unleashes Seel, who bounces around before realizing that this was a serious battle. The Super Nerds looked giddy, almost like they were holding in laughter as you divided up.

"Ha! You fell into our trap, punks!" Super Nerd A laughed, pointing directly at you rudely, "Only my grimer is high level, and only Arnie's zubat is low level!"

"Oh please," Misty rolled her eyes and commanded Seel to Icy Wind, which was countered by a noxious gas that the grimer belched loose.

You let loose Pigeon, who quickly flies over head, distracting both the trainer and the zubat.

It ends quickly, because as they look away, pikachu taps both of them on the back of their neck, overloading their brains with electricity. It shouldn't kill them, but pikachu isn't an expert of the human body and you know he cannot control his electricity very well. Oh well.

You loot their bodies, finding:

-Potion (x2)  
>-Pokeball (x1)<br>-Application to Join Team Rocket (x2)

-2550 Poke

There wasn't much else to take from them except their house/apartment keys, their PokeGear, or their trainer licenses. If you took any of these items, it would probably give them enough reason to look for you. So you don't.

Misty looks at you incredulously but after a moment just shakes her head mirthfully.

Sadly, this wasn't the only pair of trainers that you and Misty encounter on the way to the Academy. As it turns out, the area around the Academy is filled with trainers because most of them have little else to do and most are unable to sneak out of the city because they are just ordinary people trying to get a pokemon trainer's license.

That said, you have knocked out a total of 11 people before reaching the doors of the Academy. They are a mixture of what would be high school students and middle school students. All of them seemed to think the battles were going to be just like how they were conducted in the schools, and never even thought it was possible to attack the trainer directly. They seem to also not wear any armor or protection, having never actually left the city. The total loot, as you basically strip them naked and look for anything they won't miss, for this group is:

-Potion (x6)  
>-Pokeball (x2)<br>-Universal Poison Heal (x4)

-11350 Poke

As you climb over the main gates of the school, Misty whispers in your ear as she follows you from behind, "Sato, what are we doing here, exactly?"

It was a short internal struggle that conflicted within you, but you realized that if you wanted to keep Misty with you, you will need to tell her the truth. So you do, you tell her that you found a dead man with identification to this school on the road. You wanted to investigate his death because it could not have been natural.

She nods at you slowly, but accepts your reasoning.

As you reached the main lobby, you see a main computer where you can use the ID tag for S. Pilgrim. You found an insert slot which you slide the ID tag in. The screen immediately lights up, bright green with the words:

"_Welcome to PKMN Academy_, Mister Scott Pilgrim!"

On the screen. You tap the keys for looking up personal data, finding only Pilgrim's name, age, address, and some other miscellaneous information. Some of the words at the bottom seems to be blacked out, however.

"Well, well, you're not supposed to be here," An unfamiliar smooth voice called out from the darkness above you. Your eyes flicker around the lobby, searching. You know this tone. This man seems to want to toy with you. Good, then he is underestimating you. "School is closed during these hours you know?"

"Come out, whoever you are!" Misty called out frantically. It looks like she isn't very adept with dealing with fighting in the darkness. She may have some trauma against fighting against people who try to toy with her too, though...

"My, that is a rude way of asking," the voice sighs. It echoes in the room, making it hard for you to pin point where the sound is coming from, "But I suppose I will entertain you, just this once."

-A flapping of wings, cloth-

-You hear something, something approaching from all sides.

"Prepare for some trouble, my young friends," the voice calls. You hear a click as hard rubber made contact with the floor tiles. He is somewhere in the room. But even with the blue light from the computer, you see only darkness. How...?

_Pop! Pop! Pop!_

The lights around the room all shine brightly, to their maximum power-

"-In war, I bring compassion. In peace, I bring love. Protecting from the evils of truth... You shall call me-Ah, but your ears are not worthy of the grace of my name. Simply know that, you should not have been poking where you were-!"

A man appears at the center of the room. Six pokeballs on his belt, a black cap, a pair of gray boots and gray gloves, that black uniform...

...A Team Rocket Grunt!

"Prepare for battle, children. Perhaps, if you get out of whatever ailment I inflict upon you, you'll learn where not to sniff when you are told..." Both of his hands grasp pokeballs. A pistol, clearly visible, rests in its holster on his belt. A whip rests on the other side. He strides with a confident gait, knowing that he would win against you, completely dominating you.

"...If you survive."

-A flash... Suddenly, four Ekans surround you.

[Rocket Grunt]  
>[Ekans Lv. 15]<br>[Ekans Lv. 11]  
>[Ekans Lv. 15]<br>[Ekans Lv. 11]

Loot Total This Round:

-Potion (x8)  
>-Pokeball (x3)<br>-Universal Poison Heal (x4)  
>-Application to Join Team Rocket (x2)<p>

-13900 Poke

Experience Total This Round:

-Pikachu (+Lv. 5!)  
>-Pigeon (+Lv. 3!)<br>-Magikarp (+Lv. 1!)

Misty's Pokemon  
>-Seel (+Lv. 2!)<p>

**Viridian Pokemon Academy!**

You grab Misty bridal style and run down a long stretch of a hallway. All the doors are locked and there's a dead end coming up. She shrieks as you pick her up despite what you have been through.

"Ah! Hahaha! Run, run little mice!" The Rocket Grunt laughs. He is further underestimating you, you think angrily. In any other condition you would be insulted, but as is the circumstance, you will have to settle for taking advantage of his overconfidence.

And Ekans follow you, but do not move to strike until you stopped.

In a flash, you release the seals on pidgey and poliwag. Poliwag immediately sends a wall of bubbles between the Ekans and you while pidgey looks on overhead, circling them but not attacking. You back up further...

...further, slowly now...

The Ekans pierce through the wall of bubbles, causing a wave of water to splatter all over them. The Rocket Grunt walks in, following his snakes. "My, you've gotten my boots all soaked... I do hope you are going to take responsibility." His soft steps in the puddles echo through the hall way.

You ignore his taunt and let pikachu loose, a powerful thundershock already charging in his cheeks. His attack misses however, as all the Ekans coil up and spring the moment his attack lands.

"What a light show," the Grunt laughs at you carelessly, running a hand through his hair as if he were some pretty boy. "Did you really think my snakes will fall for that? Attack! Ekans!"

As one, they blitzed through your defensive pokemon. Three of them leaped at you while one hissed and shot its poison at pidgey. You instinctively move Misty behind you and try to shield her.

Their bites do not pierce your clothing but they are not here to bite you, not at first. Their coils tighten around your arms and neck, holding you down and turning parts of your skin purple.

The edges of your vision grow dim and dark... Oxygen-?

-A flurry of spinning sharp edges flash around you.

"Sssssshhaaa!" It was Misty's Staryu, which spun at such speeds that, after hardening its body, it cut the Ekans on you into pieces. Severed Ekans heads fall to the ground.

You struggle for breath for a moment before reaching up and uncoiling the Ekans around your neck. You pull the dead snakes off your body viciously, letting their shredded bodies fall.

"Shaasha!" Staryu spins around you happily, before spinning after the Ekans on top of pidgey. But by the looks of it pidgey may not make it...

"Wha-?" The Rocket Grunt cries in surprise. "This isn't fair I-!"

You see in the corner of your eyes that an Ekans is wrapped around pidgey and was close to killing it by now-

"Go, Seel!" Misty leaps from behind you, "Icy Wind!"

A torrent of ice flooded the hall as Seel used it as an artificial wind tunnel, causing the puddles of water around the the Grunt into spikes of ice trapping him in.

You see him go for his other pokeballs-

-And you shoot him. The bullet hits, throwing his head back. You see that you had shot him between the eyes. Lucky, but-

-his pokeballs fall, hitting the ground. Two Arboks hiss as they jump out. They see their dead master and hiss wildly.

"Ah... Sato, I hope you have a plan for this too," Misty mutters behind you nervously.

[Arbok Lv. 22]  
>[Arbok Lv. 19]<p>

**Viridian Nightlife! Pt. 3**

You ball pidgey quickly. It looks like she had been choked and, from the multiple bite marks on the body, the ekans poison will not help either. You'll need to spend an antidote on her.

You whisper harshly at Misty, "Fill the hall with water."

"Already on it," she replied with a smirk.

The combined bubbles, water, and ice from Poliwag, Staryu, Shellder, and Seel took the two angry Arboks by surprise, causing them to sputter and thrash blindly before they caught sight of your group. But it was too late-

-Pikachu charged up to them with a powerful volt tackle, slamming into the lower level Arbok right in the head-

-But they just shrug it off, along with everything else. Their scales allow them to slither around the water and the ice. However, the temperature seems to be affecting them, making them slower. It doesn't stop them as they both coiled up to strike.

"Pikachu! Call back!" You call out. Your hand grips your pistol so tightly that there was some liquids coming out. Your hands might be bleeding.

"Misty!"

"Got it! Seel, Icy Wind!" The swirl of ice shards splatter all over the arboks, causing spikes of ice to form around them. They slither around the ice gracefully, but the lower level arbok become encased in the frost, causing it to shiver and stop its movements momentarily. "Shellder, Staryu, harden!"

Both her shellder and her staryu shone in the bright corridor as their outer shells toughened and they stood their ground, getting ready for impact.

"Another wave," you command Misty.

She nods and your pokemons send another wave of water and ice, splattering on the confused arboks. They thrash around again, without help from their trainer. However, the higher level one sees you and strikes, trying to bite!

Pikachu quickly intercepted with another volt tackle, but it was brushed off by the far more powerful pokemon as it simply landed and coiled up again, glaring at you. Pikachu looks dazed as he is knocked into a nearby wall. He struggles to get up but-

-The arbok charges again, intent on biting your head off, but this time, both shellder and staryu intercept. While relatively more experienced than pikachu, neither of them have the sheer size or mass to stop the arbok and are sent flying again.

It glares at you, as the ice around its companion begins to crack...

...You push Misty behind you, whispering, "Keep close, I'll keep you safe."

You know that your bullets will just bounce off the arbok's scales, because it is too hard and your gun is far too low caliber. You could try your machete, but against something that is the arbok's shell, you might as well be chopping against concrete walls-

-the arbok is close now, coiled and ready to strike. Pikachu is still struggling to get up and Seel and Poliwag can barely keep the other arbok held-

With nowhere to go, you let out Mr. Fish and grasp her tail, despite it cutting slightly into your palms. With an animalistic roar, you meet the arbok's charged strike head on, by smashing Mr. Fish's harder skull down against the arbok's head as it tries to bite you!

"Chaaa..." It hisses, but you see blood leaking out of its eyes. It is close to death. You ignore the pain in your hands and smash Mr. Fish against the arbok again, and you feel and hear a crack.

You look down.

Mr. Fish looks like she is very frightened by you; her eyes wide, twitching and swaying around wildly, but is relatively unscratched.

Ah. You might have blanked out and smashed the arbok's head more than you counted. There is little left other than organic mush beneath your feet, attached to an arbok's body. You walk up to the other, frozen arbok and shatter its body with a dozen well placed smashes.

Just as your are able to completely shatter the second arbok, Mr. Fish's body grows hot and glows. You let go in alarm, as its body starts to expand-expanding so vast-that she plugged up the entire hallway, with just her face alone.

[Congratulations! Your Magikarp has evolved into a Gyarados!]

Unlike any other textbook Gyarados, yours is red, like the color of the blood of your enemies. It roars triumphantly. You roar back at it, and it is suitably cowed. Pikachu tells you it is just happy you don't have to swing it around anymore.

You loot the Rocket Grunt:

-High Calibur Rocket Pistol (x1)  
>-Rocket Grunt Cellphone (x1)<br>-Rocket Grunt PokeGear (x1)  
>-Set of Rocket Grunt clothes (x1)<br>-Pokeball (x10)  
>-Rocket Grunt Taser (x1)<br>-Rocket Grunt Bullwhip (x1)

-9010 poke

You also ball the two arbok bodies, because you want to keep their skin for making armor later. They are relatively well trained and well raised. It must have taken the Grunt years to raise his arboks to that level of hardness for scales, you imagine. The shells were slightly harder than your knives now that you have opportunity to test them.

Misty hugs you from behind, leaning on you with the full weight of her body. "Phew," she mutters against you. You feel her hot breath tickling your neck. "That was tiring... What else do you have planned, Sato? That certainly is one way to entertain a girl on a date..." She giggles tiredly.

Experience Gained:

-Pikachu (Lv. +2)  
>-Poliwag (Lv. +2)<br>-Pigeon (Lv. +1)  
>-Mr. Fish (Lv. +2)<p>

Misty's Pokemon:

-Staryu (Lv. +1)  
>-Seel (Lv. +1)<br>-Shellder (Lv. +2)

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong>

And that's about it for the first segment.**  
><strong>


	2. Information for Part 1

**ALL IS RED**

**[Additional Information]  
><strong>

The pokemon world is a dangerous place. Rival professors snipe at each other when they can through the shadows, all the while working for the 'betterment of humanity and pokemon kind'. Gym leaders are more than just city leaders, they are the ruling powers in their individual city regions. There, their word is law. The pokemon league is the governing power that interacts with other nations' leagues. It also keeps the gym leaders somewhat in line.

You were "found by Professor Oak as a young boy, since before you could remember, as an orphan"... is what the Professor tells you. Truthfully, you don't know when you got into this line of work, but you have be in it for the last six years.

You grew up with the poliwag. It was the first pokemon you caught. It has done three spying missions and one assassination mission with you thus far.

You are known by Professor Oak and Blue as "The Fighter". Under your command, pokemon (even those that are not yours) are able to fight to their full potential, and above it. Your specialty is combat tactics, not just pokemon battling tactics. However, you have been taught by the Professor to deal with whatever problem that comes your way and whatever problem he wants you to take care of.

Green is the "girl next door" who is also starting her pokemon journey in a week. She is not involved in any shadowy business, you have watched her on-and-off for the last few years.

* * *

><p><strong>Potions<strong>

In this world, potions act as a form of 'instant bio-foam' that seals wounds and temporarily replaces flesh with enough substance that acts a sort of skeleton for the body to build upon. It also increases healing and cell division several times over, although it should not be used too many times on the same area of the body, unless it is on a pokemon that is nigh-immortal. Potions do not have enough power to replace lost limbs, but it can help the body heal from practically anything else, including missing whole chunks of flesh in critical areas, although those types of wounds require maximized potions, which are far more concentrated and expensive. You can also, using many exposures to potions on healthy skin, kill someone by aging certain areas of the body.

* * *

><p><strong>Pokeball<strong>

While within a pokeball, a pokemon does not feel hunger and is in rest. It is in a form of semi-stasis that allows for the pokemon inside to be aware of what is happening outside, but at the same time it is unable to age or do anything else. Some scientists say that it is supposed to feel like it is in stasis, but everything directly outside should feel like a dream to a sleeper within. This has been neither proven or disproven, as no ball-maker has actually tried to trap themselves within and come out... alive.

* * *

><p><strong>PokeMediKit<strong> (Because everything starts with "Poke-")

You seem to have a small pokemedikit in your backpack. It is half stocked (10/20). You could probably fill it up more later or even expand it at shops. There are bandages and some alcohol-based wound-cleaning substance in there. There is also a small packet of painkillers and a few cotton swabs. There is also a little diagram drawn by Delia 'Ketchem' about "Sexual Education". You didn't bother reading it. There is also a small booklet on how to treat simple injuries and common colds.

* * *

><p><strong>Specialists<strong>

Pokemon, people, pokemon, people... pokemon have extraordinary abilities. Some have the abilities to control the weather, to shape their surroundings. Some can create power beyond anything that says logically they shouldn't be able to. Others can bend the very fabric of space and time. But even further than that, so many also transcend death itself, utilizing a variety of mythical means.

So thus pokemon and people coexist, but to what end? How do people keep up? Humans do not have the ability to gain pokemon-like traits... do they?

There is no exact terminology for it, because the science society of the world do not acknowledge it. However, Professor Oak has taught you well. He told you all about humans who have gone and grown closer to pokemon than logically possible...

He calls these people... 'specialists'. There are many other names for them, each different in each region, perhaps even different between Professors. Specialists are people who have, after careful breeding through countless generations, gained an affinity for a certain type of pokemon. By living with these same types of pokemon for years, these people have learned to adapt their own bodies to be like some of these pokemon, in minute ways. Some are able to swim a little faster, run a little longer, or endure heats a little more. After generations of contact, some specialists are able to even understand certain types of pokemon better. You suspect Misty is one such water-type specialist.

However, to say that people only gain type-like traits is a lie. Professor Oak has confided to you that there are, above those who specialize in certain type, the humans who have gained certain abilities when interacting with pokemon. Some are able to heal them. Some are able to understand them. Some are able to breed them...

Blue, from what you can deduce (Professor Oak will not tell you) is 'The Trainer'. He is able to take even the laziest of pokemon and whip them into shape, bringing out their full potential when spending long hours with them, learning from them as they learn from him.

You are 'The Fighter'.

However, with your codename 'Red' and your red pupils, you wonder if there is something more to you than just that...

* * *

><p><strong>Regional Organized Charity for Kinship, Evolution and Tolerance Society<strong>  
><em>[ROCKETS or Team Rocket]<em>

"_Amidst War,  
>Compassion.<br>Amidst Peace,  
>Love.<em>

-ROCKET Motto

To the media and to the public at large, the so-called Rockets (a moniker that had been used jokingly in passing) are a group that focuses on the betterment of humanity. This organization is loosely based in the Kanto Region, as _the_major charitable organization. It moves between major cities working in which ever area that needs the most aid. There has been many occasions that the Rocket Society has been just in time to save an area from disaster, in many cases saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

Or so they say.

While neither Professor Oak or you know who or what is at the head of this organization, it is clearly not a simple charity. Its size alone, in monetary value and in military power, is enough to easily overwhelm a small nation. There are currently over 200,000 field agents working for this organization worldwide, though you are unsure as to how Professor Oak was able to ascertain this number. He is sure that there is actually a much greater number than this. However, Team Rocket's main power is not in its man power nor is it in its monetary weight.

From middle management and up, Team Rocket is led by some of the most talented trainers and leaders of this generation. From the more noticeable, yet mostly ignored, operations such as massive money laundering, underground mortgage trading, currency falsification, massive short selling of properties, to any other number of profitable yet amoral actions to some more shadowy operations such as pokemon cloning, Team Rocket is more like a talented shadow society working at controlling the world than a charity group. Many of its leaders, even operation officers, are clouded in secrecy, which is a sure sign to attract the interest of many Professors. However, none has yet been able to penetrate the shroud of darkness that Team Rocket has been able to veil upon the world, other than learning of some lower level operation from Rocket Grunts.

While many other Professors based in other regions are sure that all Team Rocket is is an organization bent on earning profits (nothing new to them), Professor Oak thinks differently. He has confided to you that he suspects the top executives of this organization to be some of the most powerful people in this continent, if not the world. His instructions to you, upon confrontation with this group, is to evade and hide your identify as best you can. If information is leaked, destroy all witnesses and leave nothing.

_[Professor Oak had been rather upset a few years ago, when a Doctor Fuji had disappeared. He seems to have hinted at Fuji being recruited by the Rocket Society for Fuji's talent in genetic engineering and more specifically, cloning.]_

...He seems reluctant to talk to you about the leadership of Team Rocket, however. He has hinted before that there are some history between him and the organization, and even something between you and Team Rocket as well...

* * *

><p><strong>Moves<strong>

"_Well, Red, the moves are like this: some are genetically inherent within the Pokemon, like instructions and blueprints all rolled into one that the Pokemon can use the moment it is born instinctively. This allows them some time to actually learn the move and train it to a viable strength as they grow out of a baby phase._

Other moves are experimented upon by the Pokemon or by it's trainer. I speculate this is one of the main reasons why Pokemon might be willing to allow itself to be shackled with slavery and used in gladiatorial combat: to gain greater power. Trainers are able to help Pokemon learn about themselves and their powers to unleash greater techniques as they train. In this sense, no two higher level Pokemon are the same. And leveling up without much training before or after is not a good thing.

Yes, both Pokemon and other trainers are able to teach moves if they wished to other Pokemon. There is no restriction on this. However do remember that this is not an instantaneous process and would still take some time, but is faster than having to experiment with your Pokemon on it's powers and learn a move, or having the Pokemon come up with an entirely new move on it's own.

For higher evolutions: they need to adapt to their greater array of powers and their suddenly different bodies. This takes a span of a few levels, thus making them learn most moves which require more finesse in a longer span of time.

And finally, four moves? That's just propaganda perpetuated by the stereotype of the video games you see out there these days. Do you only know four moves? Breathe, shit, eat, and be stupid? No, pokemon can use more than four moves.

Does that answer your question? Now get out of my lab, I'm doing some important experimentation here!

" Professor Oak shouts at you, as he turns around to remove the bulb from the back of a bulbasaur.

* * *

><p><strong>[Current Inventory]<strong>  
>[Key Items]<br>-Reinforced Backpack  
>-Sentimental Pokemon League Cap [Equipped]<br>-PokeGear [Equipped]  
>-Dogtag inscribed "S. Pilgrim, Viridian PKMN Academy"<br>-PokeMediKit (20/20)  
>-<strong>Rainbow Wing Feather<strong>  
>-Application to Join Team Rocket (x2)<br>-Set of Rocket Grunt clothes (x1)  
>-Rocket Grunt PokeGear (x1)<p>

[Money]  
>-24335 Poke<p>

[Trainer Gear]  
>-Empty PokeBalls (x22)<br>-Potion (x12)  
>-Universal Poison Heal (x7)<br>-Experience Share

[Misc Items]  
>-Reinforced Trainer Clothing (x1) [Equipped]<br>-Stunguns (x2) [Equipped]  
>-Silenced Pistol (x1) [Equipped]<br>-Extra Pistol Clips (x10)  
>-Machete (x1)<br>-Combat Knife (x1) [Equipped]  
>-Throwing Knife (x3) [Equipped]<br>-Untraceable Cellphone (x1)  
>-Rocket Grunt High Calibur Pistol (x1)<br>-Rocket Grunt Cellphone (x1)  
>-Rocket Grunt Taser (x1)<br>-Rocket Grunt Bullwhip (x1)

**[Pokemon]**  
>[Red's Team]<br>-Red's Poliwag (Lv. 8) (Maximized IV)  
>-Red's Pikachu (Lv. 12) (Maximized IV-Seems to have gone above Maximum) (Holding <strong>Special Light Ball<strong>)  
>-Pigeon (Pidgey) (Lv. 10)<br>-Rattata (Lv. 7)  
>-Mr. Fish (Red Gyarados) (Lv. 20)<p>

[Misty's Team]  
>-Staryu (Lv. 16)<br>-Seal (Lv. 15)  
>-Shellder (Lv. 10)<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Pokemon You Own<strong>

**MR. FISH**  
><em>Gyarados Rex<em>

Weight: 1036.2 lbs (470 kg)  
>Length: 106'8" (32.5 meters)<br>Height: 21'4" (6.5 meters)  
>Gender: Female<p>

_Found and caught by your bare hands on Route 1, this powerful, shiny Red Gyarados is a majestic sight to behold. She fears no enemies, as her impossibly hard shell allows her to endure punishment beyond even what a modern tank can withstand. She has the power of serpents, allowing her to practically plow through almost any enemy without need for finesse. You may have to teach her about that. Her unique coloration allows her allows her to stand out, but it seems to give no visible bonuses. She seems more intelligent than a normal Gyarados. She is also extremely afraid of you for some reason._

Moves Known:  
>-Thrash<br>-Rage  
>-Bite<br>-Splash  
>-Tackle<br>-Flail  
>-Tail Whip<br>-Roar

**PIKACHU**  
><em>Pika Pika Pi Chuchu<em>

Weight: 13.2 lbs (6 kg)  
>Height: 1'4" (0.4 meters)<br>Gender: Male

_You received this pikachu from Professor Oak. While the limit on a normal pokemon's individual values, as Professor Oak measures them, is 30, this anomaly was the result of an experiment to push pokemon beyond their limits. All his individual values are over 40 points, a frightening thing to behold. With the special, engineered __**Light Ball**__ that Professor Oak had created just for this creature, it is possibly the most powerful pikachu in the world, without a doubt. His personality matches your and you seem to have a strange affinity for him, as if he was created just for you. Or you were created just it. Strange. At the very least, you seem to be able to understand what it is thinking most of the time, and it you._

Moves Known:  
>Volt Tackle<br>Tackle  
>Growl<br>Tail Whip  
>Thundershock<br>Quick Attack  
>Thunder Wave<p>

**POLIWAG**  
><em>Bufonidae Poliwag<em>

Weight: 27.3 lbs (12.4 kg)  
>Height: 2'0" (0.6 meters)<br>Gender: Female

_You were friends with this poliwag since you were five years old. Professor Oak gave it to you as a present, the first of a few. It is a maximized pokemon from one of Oak's earlier experiments, so it is in peak condition as of physical ability. All it depends on is how you train it for it to be come even more power. It has been your faithful companion for many years through many hardships. It will continue to follow you as you walk the path that leads to your rise in power..._

Moves Known:  
>Water Sport<br>Tail Wag  
>Tackle<br>Bubble  
>Hypnosis<br>Surf


	3. Part 2

**ALL IS RED**

**Viridian Nightlife! Pt. 4**

You reach forward, causing Mr. Fish to flinch and closer her eyes. She shrinks as you draw closer and starts shivering. You frown and hold back a sigh. Slowly, your hand moves forward and pats Mr. Fish on the head slowly. After a moment, she stops shivering and opens her eyes, even though there was a large smear of your blood printed on her forehead now. You take the **Ex. Share** from her head and stash it into your pack.

Your pack is kind of heavy now, but still easily bearable.

You nod a thanks at Mr. Fish.

"Tch..." You frown, looking down at your hands. Your palms are starting to sting as the adrenaline flowing in your veins begin to move elsewhere. "Let me bandage up," you say, as you toss three potions to Misty, "here, use these."

"I'll only need two, thanks, Sato," She murmurs as she begins working on her shellder and staryu. Seel looks pretty much untouched, just surrounded by ice.

Pikachu turns to you as you finished cleaning and bandaging up your hands. He drops a pile of security cameras in your lap and wags his tail like a puppy. Then he laughs giddily. You realize he might have a concussion. At least he is still working hard even though he is... disoriented.

You quickly apply a potion on his head and hold him down. You also apply a universal poison heal with a potion on Pigeon.

You break apart all the Rocket Grunt gear in your inventory. It turns out that there is a standard tracker in both the cellphone and in the PokeGear. You are able to copy contact and data information from the PokeGear and the cellphone to your PokeGear. There is also several pictures and a video in the PokeGear that you will need to investigate further, later.

At this time, Misty is finished healing her pokemon and had them returned to their pokeballs. She drags her feet over to you and sits down next to you as you inject the antivenom into Pigeon. She places her cheek against your shoulder as she melds her body against yours.

Pikachu is fine now, and he is playing with the broken pieces of the trackers that were in the dismantled PokeGear and cellphone.

The pistol you took from the Rocket has 8 bullets a clip, and he is carrying two extra clips. This gun is about twice as powerful as your gun. As it turns out, the Rocket Grunt was carrying armor piercing rounds too, in all three clips. A single bullet from this gun would have put down one of his arboks, and you are sure he knew this too.

Waving to Mr. Fish, you signal her to help you clean up. Her tongue snakes out and drags all the ekans bodies into her mouth before she starts munching happily. The loud crunches in her mouth fill the hallway.

You know that in about five minutes, more Rocket Grunts will come to reinforce this Rocket Grunt since he has gone missing. They are usually watching out for each other. The ice has already melted to puddles and that is quickly absorbed by Mr. Fish. You give the naked body of the Rocket Grunt to Mr. Fish too, who swallows it whole, after you dug the bullet out of his skull.

You ask poliwag to wash away the signs of battle, such as the blood on the floors, and tell Mr. Fish to make it disappear. Mr. Fish chortles and drinks it all.

After the clean up, you ball Mr. Fish. You estimate that you have two minutes to disappear before reinforcements come. You ball up all your pokemon except pikachu. The area seems clean enough now, with no signs of you ever being there left, unless you count the scrap metal that used to be cameras... hidden away in some garbage bin at the end of the hall.

You stand up, holding Misty's body up as well. You shake her shoulders a little, whispering into her ear, "Come on, Misty, don't fall asleep on me now. Wake up..."

She blinks her eyes at you tiredly, "Sato...?"

"Come on, come on," you growl as you take her into your arms. Pikachu hops onto your shoulders. "You did good, you did good," you mutter as you squeeze her shoulder.

She leans closer to your chest, snug in your warmth.

"I promised you would be safe, didn't I? Come on, let's get out of here," you say.

"Yeah... yeah you did..." she mutters as her eyes close.

You grit your teeth, "Come on, keep we need to get out of here now. You're mine."

She only cuddles closer against your chest, muttering, "F'ever..."

After putting some distance between the Academy and yourselves, you set Misty down. She dozes for a few minutes before she comes to and snaps her head left and right, "Ah, ah... wha... Sato?" She asks in confusion.

"Are you alright now?" You whisper to her as you hold her. She seems to have just realized she was sleeping on your lap.

"Wha-wha-wah...!" She jumps up. "I-you-er... so... where to now?" She seems clearly uncomfortable about something, but that is no surprise. You just killed a man as easily as you breath. She should be frightened, if only a little. You want to question her about it, but you hold back, for her sake for now.

"Now? Let's go and get you that armor so that you don't have to worry about every scrapped knee and every little thing if you're going to be out in the wilderness again, alright?"

She nods at you obediently.

You travel south, to the PokeMart. By this time, there were no Pokemon trainers out to challenge you anymore, as it was nearly midnight already. However, you do see a few of your past conquests, except without any clothing. It looks like some other trainers or random people came in and looted them after you.

As you walk into the PokeMart and you turn towards the counter, you see not the clerk behind the counter, but _James_.

"Well. It's this a lovely surprise..." James says as he sees you. "I see that you are surprised I am working here. Well, the previous clerk seems to have suffered an unfortunate accident, so I am ah... helping him out by taking over for him for a while."

He smirks at you.

"Aw, and you two both look so tired, have you been out late doing naughty things?" James asked teasingly.

"Wha-what? No, I'm pure!" Misty blurted out before realizing what she had just said. She quickly blushed and tried to hide behind you.

"Anyway, hello again James, it's been real swell that you helped us out in that tight spot earlier," you say as you walk forward and shake his hand.

He looks surprised by your jovial tone, but quickly covers it up, "It's nothing! Nothing at all. After all, Rocket society is all about helping our fellow man in need." He looked between the two of you, "So what would you like at this time of the night? Some ah... rubbers?" He purposely leans forward and stage-whispers to you.

Misty instantly caught on to what James was insinuating and blushed harder. "N-no, we're just here for some more gear."

"Yeah, we're going to go back out into the wilds for soon. I still got some pokemon I wanna catch, you know?" You wink at Jame and notice that eve nthe store merchandise has changed since you were last here, three hours ago.

James nods wisely, "Oh of course, gotta catch 'em all, right?"

"Hey, I noticed that some of the stuff in the store is different, why the change?" You ask naively.

"Ah, yes, we ran out of pokeballs and potions tonight and the last shipment has gone missing. It's a terrible thing, but Rocket Society has been providing for Viridian now so you won't need to head to the PokeMart as much anymore." Never mind that you had seen piles of spare pokeballs around the PokeMart earlier, you refrain to comment on that.

"Anyway, I need to get a survival set for Misty," you motion to her.

James looks her up and down and nods professionally, "Of course, a size 12. I'll get it right now, it should still be sealed in but you guys are fine with that brand new armor smell, right?"

"Yeah, we're fine with it."

"Alright then, here you go, anything else?"

"I need a repel, an escape rope, and two pokefoods," you add.

James nods again, almost like he is trying to cover up how bored he was. "Of course, a universal bug repellent, a hundred foot of rope, and two packets of pokemon foods. Do you have any idea what kinds you want?"

"I'll get the greater all around nutrient version."

"Ah, a generalist's choice it is then!" He swipes all of the items and says, "That'll be 16,200... but ah, since we're such good friends and all, how about I give you a discount, eh? I'll give this to you half off, if you ah... read this pamphlet."

He slides to you, from over the counter, a pamphlet that read, "_ROCKETS! FUCK YA!_" With a cartoony Rocket Grunt on the cover giving a thumbs up.

"We're looking for more members to help out society, so... how about it? I mean, this is a lot of cash you're spending here, Sato-kun~!"

You scratch the back of your head and try to blush. You look down at the floor and mumble, "...Girls...," before looking up to meet James' stare with an embarrassed expression. "You know how it is, right?" You grin nervously at him.

James laughs as Misty punches your arm jokingly. "So, think about joining the Rockets, eh?"

You scratch your chin thoughtfully, causing Misty to frown at you. Luckily James does not notice this, or if he did, he didn't respond. "Well... I was going to start looking for employment, you know... but..."

"Right, you're probably thinking about what all those conspiracy theorists say, right? What with them all accusing us of 'genetically engineering a super-pokemon' or 'trying to take over the world', it could be pretty bad reputation, I understand completely," James nods at you. "But... just take this and look at it, alright?"

He slips the sheet of paper into your chest pocket.

"I'll ring you up for 8,100 Poke, alright Sato-kun? Don't be a stranger, I'll be in Viridian for another month or so, so do come back and visit. You seem like such a talented trainer," He says wistfully. "Why... I remember when I was that age and-ah, I'm probably boring you now, aren't I?"

"No, of course not," you smile at him kindly and pay the bill. "But Misty is tired and we should probably get going. Although..."

You turn around to the sight of Misty wearing her new survival gear. It looked like it fitted snugly around her developing curves. From where you stood, it looked like she was wearing dark blue spandex under a white and baby blue jacket. As she walked to you, the form fitting basic survival armor moved with her curves.

"...Well, ahem." You tug on your collar, "You, ah, got dressed pretty fast."

"Are we done here?" Misty asks while batting her eyelashes at you.

"Sure, sure, let's go back to the Pokemon Center," you nodded vigorously.

As you walk out, you could hear James mutter, "Ah, young love," before the door slid shut.

Instantly Misty pressed herself against you as your arm coiled around her waist. "We need to meet up with my rattata," you say.

"Where's he at?" Misty asked in a hush whisper.

"It shouldn't be far, though I don't know the area." You say, "I told 'em to stay hidden until he sees me. It's in the apartment district."

There were no tails on your back.

After you arrive at the apartment district, you duck into a dark alley with Misty. It was late now, but there were still people walking the streets at this time. Many of them were openly flaunting their membership with Team Rocket and taking part in many rather hedonistic actions.

You wait for a couple of minutes before the light scamper of feet reach your ears. Moments later, rattata has arrived. He looks like he had a long night.

After some exchanges between it, you, and pikachu, what you know is: Ron is missing. His apartment is in ruins, as if someone wanted to stage a theft. Or maybe it was a theft, you don't know. There was a group of Rocket members who keep watch on the apartment at all times. They send members after anyone who is suspicious and had approached the area. Those people also disappear.

...And the local female rattatas are all sluts.

**Entrance to Victory**

"How are you holding up," you ask Misty as you walked out of the shadows.

She held her head for a moment before blinking rapidly and saying, "I'll be alright I think. Although, I'd like to get out of town for a while. This day has been a little too wild for my tastes."

"Yes, but can you travel immediately?"

"I'll be fine," she reassured you, patting you on the shoulder gently. "Let's go."

As it turned out, the direct route out through Route 1 was cut off by gangs of Team Rocket Grunts. There must have been at least fifty of them prowling the area, which is more than suspicious considering it was passed 1 AM in the morning.

Traveling north by that time was not an option because that would mean passing by the Pokemon Academy again...

...Misty used this time to cling to your arm so that, to any witnesses, you were just a couple on a date. It worked rather well that you were able to hide in plain sight, even from the Rockets who seemed to be moving around the streets in large numbers.

So the two of you traveled west and found a way out of the city through the park. It was still dark at the time. Both staryu and rattata were out, with staryu helping Misty move because her ankle still hurt and rattata scouting ahead.

You had expended a Great Pokemon Food meal pack for both pikachu and rattata earlier, since both were up much longer than they should. It was balls of something-like meat, but not really. But your pokemon seemed incredibly happy to eat it so you were not questioning it.

As you moved out of town, you knew that you would reach the entrance of Victory Road. However, what you didn't know was...

...There standing in the pale, blue, blue moon, was a boy your age holding tightly his victim's throat. Who the victim is, is inconsequential. Who the boy is, is that he is your oldest friend. There he stood, with his brown hair waving in the gentle wind, with a mad gleam in his eyes-Blue, or as he is better know to the world: Gary Oaks.

He turns to you, eyes flickering between you and your lady friend. His brow creases and he frowns, tilting his head, "Ah, why so serious, girl?" He steps off of the woman beneath him, taking lazy strides towards you. "Why so serious?"

You notice there was a knife stuck in the woman's abdomen, one that he pulled out. He waves it around, his hand blurs, and the blood all splatters in thin lines all over the ground.

"It's been a while, Red," he mutters. "How've you been? Is it time for us to duel once more? How about something fun and simple?" He grins at you childishly, ignoring the body beneath him for the moment. "I haven't had much time to capture pokemon, but this last one completes the mission!"

He tucks the knife away. You can feel Misty shiver behind you, but you're used to the way Blue acts. He would never try to _kill_you. He has far too much control to kill you. Torture you for the rest of your life? Sure, but never kill unless it is truly intentional. And he likes you far too much to kill you...

"I've only caught three, so how about a one-on-one with three on the line up, huh?" He takes out a pokeball and enlarges it, making ready for battle. "I'll wager something especially juicy on the line too. You'll probably need it, what with the ruckus you caused in Viridian."

Blue is unnaturally calm. That was one of his defining traits that carried from everything he did. Professor Oak said it would make him seem cold to people, but those people would not understand. When Blue focuses, he only has two modes, one that is filled with giddy happiness or one that is completely cold and emotionless. However, sometimes his modes mix together.

His tongue flicks up, barely visible, licking the tiny specks of blood off of his cheeks. He pushes his hair back with a hand, letting the thin sheen of sweat on his forehead light up in the dim beam of the moon. But he is smiling, happy to see you...

**"No, save it for a secure location."**

"Aww, come on, _Red_, what's the worst that could happen?" Blue shrugs at you light-heartedly. He twirls a pokeball on the tip of his pinky lazily. "I've already killed all the Rocket members in the area, it's not like we'll have any interruptions."

**"There are a dozen worse things that could happen that I can list off of the top of my head."**

"Why so serious, Red?" Your best friend since you were six asks again, "I'm not here to hinder you. Your girlfriend is half a step from falling asleep anyway, so you can't move much further."

It was true, you see. Despite her efforts to keep herself awake, Misty had been up this entire day, starting from waiting for you to wake at your bedside to this entire adventure that resulted from your mission. Her eyes are fluttering, even as she tries so hard to prove Blue wrong.

As she tries to protest, a yawn drags out of her mouth instead.

"Sorry, Sato..." Misty blushes at your side, muttering softly. She is pretty much laying against staryu for support by now. "He's your friend, right? You should introduce us, you know?"

You turn back to Blue, who was playing little tricks with his pocket knife. "It's not going to hurt, Red. I did say that I'll give you a hand if you win, right? Nothing to lose."

You stare at him with a stony glaze, silently telling him to stop, but he doesn't.

Instead, he continues in his attempt to sway you, "And I'll have you know that I've been killing their agents in this zone since _yesterday_. If any of them comes along, I've got all the authority to just snap their necks. It'll be fun, like old times! Remember when we only had Eevee and Poliwag? Good times..." He giggles a little.

He's probably both suicidal and testing you at the same time.

**Entrance to Victory! Pt. 2**

"How's about this, it'll be like a Gym Leader battle, if I were a Gym Leader, alright?" Blue stated with a wild grin on his face. He let three of his pokemon out: Pidgey, Eevee, and Spearow. "And don't underestimate me, alright? Because you'll lose! I'll start with Pidgey, then go with Spearow and finish you off with Eevee."

You nodded in consent. "Fine, let's get this over with. I'm pretty tired too."

"This will be a standard three on three match, but with us self-officiating!" Blue exclaimed as his Pidgey walked forth regally. "No items, and no... ah, 'helping'. I saw what you did at the Academy back there, very naughty of you. We'll play this by knockout! If I kill you, you'll die, and then I won't be having any more fun with you, so, let's do this!"

Now, how will you take his pokemon on?

[Pidgey Lv. 9]  
>[Spearow Lv. 12]<br>[Eevee Lv. 15]

You send out poliwag, who immediately opens up with a spray of water, which the pidgey dodged. It immediately took to the air, swooping at speeds too fast for poliwag to aim at.

"Ha, did you really think that same strategy would keep working on me, Red?" Blue gloated, "I can see that your poliwag got better, but she's still far from good enough to take me down."

Blue's pidgey took some unnaturally sharp turns in the air, dodging all of your poliwag's shots of water. It switched to bubbles, trying to trap the pidgey in place, but all of the bubbles were quickly blown away by a powerful gust that caused the bubbles to splatter all over poliwag instead.

"You see, I'm no slouch either, even if my pokemon are weaker than yours," Blue smiled at you, walking a slow, leisurely circle around the battle. He tapped his temple with a finger and smirked, "You're a better battler, I know this. But did you think I would not learn from my mistakes and correct myself? All of my pokemon had spent long hours practicing evasive maneuvers since our last match. And I know not be be over confident, now, I suppose. Pidgey, use the poliwag's attacks to your advantage, mudslap!"

Before you could issue a warning or a command, Blue's pidgey dove low and just before it smacked right into your poliwag, it unfurled its wings, flapping and causing waves of sand, mud and dirt to splash all over poliwag.

"Now, finish it off with peck!"

You get in a command before pidgey reached poliwag, causing poliwag to surround itself with a wall of bubbles. As pidgey was about to hit, poliwag took that instant to send a torrent of icy water from its mouth at the pidgey.

Instead of hitting from point blank, pidgey veered off, dodging the shot of water by bending itself unnaturally. As it used its moment to fly back around, it took that moment to use its wings to send a gust that blew both poliwag's bubble wall and poliwag herself away.

Poliwag did not get pushed back far, and stood her ground. However, at that instant, pidgey swooped around and attacked with its talons quickly, slashing at poliwag's chest. This attack did not look like it was critical, but then, pidgey dodged poliwag's attack again and again, using the time in between attacks to place hits in.

It was over, even you can tell this. Pidgey's uncanny ability to dodge and evade ranged attacks, even from point blank, must have been something Blue drove his pokemon into the ground with. It was enough to exhaust poliwag to the point where she could no longer fight. After pidgey continually tapped against poliwag, she simply couldn't endure any more of these light hits and fell.

You ball poliwag quickly.

Blue probably trained all of his pokemon in the art of evasion, neglecting to put much time into stronger attacks or faster attacks, just... this.

"Well, looks like that's one of three to me!" Blue laughs, "Alright, Spearow is up. Which pokemon are you going to use?"

**Vs Gary 2! Pt. 2**

"So, what are you gonna do, Red, my boy?" Blue chortled.

You grimace darkly and mutter, "Pikachu, go."

The electric critter hops off of your shoulders gracefully, and stalks into the battlefield like the most powerful predator in the world. He is without fear, powered by his willpower alone.

"Pikapi," he growls as spearow takes on the same routine that pidgey had, circling and swerving around pikachu like a carrion bird, waiting for pikachu to fall.

"Alright then, start off with a fury attack, this'll be good!" Blue giggled borderline hysterically.

spearow flew up high, forcing pikachu to crane his neck up to see where the bird pokemon has gone. And just as pikachu turned all the way up, spearow swooped downwards.

Unlike the last match between the pidgey and the poliwag, pikachu is much more than a match for the agile spearow in speed. He moved, hopping left and right, dodging all the pecks that the spearow aimed at him. Instead, there were half a dozen wholes the size of spearow's head in the ground now. All the while, electricity sparkled around pikachu's cheek pouches.

"Oh? A new strategy? Well, let's see it then, Feather Dance!" Blue commanded.

Instead of moving in close, spearow flew out of mid-range and begun to sprinkle feathers all around the battlefield, forcing some to stick to pikachu. It looked irritating but nothing too hindering.

Irritated, pikachu hopped around the field, bouncing on larger rocks and trying to shoot small sparks of electricity at spearow, all of which were dodged. All the while, electricity built up...

"Let's see it then, pursuit now, spearow!"

Rather than charge headlong at pikachu, spearow swerved and moved out of pikachu's field of vision. The only warning pikachu got was a loud, shrill shriek as spearow charged at pikachu from behind. But your pikachu is no ordinary pikachu, it was able to move out of the trajectory and attempted to make a touch attack at spearow.

However, spearow anticipated this and dodged accordingly. It swooped around to attack again, but this time, you know pikachu had charged to his peak-

"-THUNDER!" You command.

Blue's eyes widened, but not in shock. Instead, he was smiling even wider, "Mirror move!"

The crashing, all surrounding thundering boom of pikachu's attack, as it lit up the entire battlefield, rung in your ears, and it did so again as the same move appeared magically behind pikachu.

Both pokemon came out of the clash singed and slightly charred. But both were still ready to fight again-

-It was only through supernatural efforts that pikachu had dodged Spearow's counter, causing Spearow to dive in again.

"Finish him with peck!" Blue shouts, "Fury attack with peck now!"

"Thunder Wave!" You shout, causing Pikachu to leap up again.

"What? No!" Gary cries in shock.

Just as spearow is about to drill a hole through pikachu, pikachu jumped up and tapped spearow's neck, causing a current of electricity to run through the bird's small body and freeze-enough time for pikachu to let loose a thunderbolt, which sparked and was so charged, it left residual electricity running around the battlefield even after spearow fainted.

"Well... damn. Gramps really gave you an overpowered pikachu there," Gary mutters as he runs a hand through his hair. He balled his spearow quickly.

"Well, ready to face my Eevee?" Gary asked as he regained his composure quickly. "Whacha gonna use?"

**ROFLSTOMP!**

You click a few buttons as you take out your PokeGear.

"Eh? What are you doing there?" Gary frowns at you as you aim the camera at him, which he instinctively dodges. "Is that a camera? Why are you using it on me? Stop it!"

You roll your eyes at him.

"Alright, alright, just get on with it then!" Gary whines impatiently, allowing you to capture his features as you grasp Mr. Fish's ball.

"Go, Mr. Fish!"

Surprise. You see a lot of that. Shock, sure, that goes pretty nicely with surprise. There's some envy there, you can see that. Betrayal, at you for some reason. Sadness. For both you and himself. Frustration. Anger. Denial. Acceptance. And finally, you see Gary's jaws drop.

"Wai-what?" He cries.

Before he could even issue a command, Mr. Fish lets loose a hydropump-like ability by spitting out as much water as it could from its mouth, completely drenching Eevee. More than that, the water pressure alone caused the poor animal to collapse onto the ground and cough heavily as the blast of super-pressurized water ended.

Mr. Fish moved in for the kill, but you intercepted with your normal voice. You know, that cold tone of yours that causes anyone who hears you to think they are next on the grim reaper's list. "Mr. Fish. Stop."

She freezes immediately. You can tell she is in an uncomfortable position. She turns to you slowly and mechanically, as if you could hear the imaginary cranks turning at the base of her skull. Her eyes were wide with fear and her lower lips trembled.

"That Eevee is not food."

Mr. Fish nods slowly and pats the poor Eevee on the head with her tailfin. Too bad she did not realize that her tailfin alone is over 100 pounds in weight. It causes Eevee to faint. While it was an anti-climatic way to end it, you pat Mr. Fish on the head nevertheless before you balled her.

"Well," Blue spits out good-naturedly. "Well, shit." He laughs heartily as he walks up to you and balls his Eevee. He slaps you on the back, hard enough to nearly cause even you to tumble forward. "How the hell did you nab yourself a Red Gyarados? I haven't even heard of one other than the one that one of the Rocket bases had made a while back..." He narrows his eyes at you.

You quickly explain that you had caught Mr. Fish when she was just a magikarp on Route 1.

"Wow... That... you are very lucky, my friend. Very lucky, you bastard," Blue mutters for a while, while stroking his chin. "Alright, a bet's a bet, so here it is. When I first got here, I had to get rid of some Rockets by the shore. Their equipment should still be there. Well, whatever I didn't loot already, anyway... I mean, it should just be an hour's walk from here. There's a motorboat there too, one that they covered up in leaves and stuff behind a rock on the shore. If you get it, then it should take you back to pallet before the sun rises."

He leans close to you and sighs. You always wonder if he actually did take sniffs of you, but he never did the deed, so you never knew.

"Now you're just being silly, Red. Look, your lady friend is already fast asleep, and it's 2 AM already. I still gotta get some info on a Ron guy, some dropoff guy for the courier that went missing a day or so ago, so I gotta head out. Smell ya later, dude."

**Welcome Seafarer**

You hold up Blue for the moment and explain to him what else you learned in town. You gave him the address of "Ron" and told him about everything that you learned thus far.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, Red," Blue pats you on the shoulder. He smiles at you confidently, "Don't worry about it. The worst that could happen to me is that I'll die, but if that happens, I'll have you and gramps to avenge me, right?"

You shake him coldly, "What about Daisy? You really should take care of yourself."

Blue's smile seems strained for a moment before he pats you on the hat, pushing your cap down so that you could not see his face. "Ah, ha, ha, don't worry so much, Red. You'll be an old man if you do. Live life and all that. Thanks for the info though... smell ya later!"

With that, Blue was gone.

You turned to Misty, who was crouched with her arms around her legs and dozing off lightly. She didn't look like she was paying any attention to what was going on.

Pikachu shrugs at you and moves ahead. You balled up Mr. Fish and took Misty into your arms, walking after pikachu.

After less than an hour, you reach a cove outside of Viridian City. It is well hidden from most prying eyes, but you see a pile of corpses messily stripped and burned behind some rocks. Blue didn't really bother with clean up.

You found the motorboat, however and it is unmarked and clean of bugs. So you sit Misty down with staryu watching over her and begin to work. While Blue took all of the immediately valuable items in the area, he didn't bother with the Rocket Grunt's guns. It turns out that they are all using armor piercing rounds.

You found an extra 20 clips and another gun. Everything else was too destroyed to be of use.

You also found some food: bread, water, and pokefood. You don't bother with this because Blue might have poisoned it.

You take the boat and the rest of the ride was uneventful. Misty slept through the whole ride and you allowed pikachu to drive after feeling a little tired too.

You sleep for about 2 hours before the boat stopped at the harbor outside of Pallet Town and get off. The sun was rising. You have 1 day before it is time for you to show up and publicly become a pokemon trainer. There is so much to do, but Misty is stirring.

"Mmhmm... Sa... Sato? Where're we?"

**Preperation Daze! Pt. 1**

"We're in my home, Pallet Town."

"Oh," Misty went back to sleep, resting against your chest.

You dropped off Misty on your bed after informing Delia about what had happened so far. She told you to go report to Professor Oak.

When you arrive into the Laboratory, you see only a couple of assistant scientists working on their own projects. One of them sees you and walks over.

"Agent Red, we were expecting you. Go right ahead, the Professor is in his room." He gives you a pat on the back, congratulating you on your completion of your mission.

You walk down the halls, down the elevator shafts, and down even deeper, lower halls. Your surroundings grow darker as you walk further. Finally, you are in a completely dark room, where an Alakazam is waiting.

"Take me to the Professor," you demand.

It nods without opening its eyes, '_Teleport incoming-!_' The Alakazam's voice echoes in your mind.

You are in a dimly lit room now. It is a circular room, with very realistic visual screens on all the walls. The screens all show... space. There is a star on one side, its red lights as it approaches its death illuminating the room. At the center of the room, an older gentleman sits, not minding you at all. You can smell the smoke of his high quality cigars filtering through the room. There is no sound here, other than his slow puffs.

You cannot see him, for his chair is turned against you. All you see his the top of his head and his limbs. He does not turn to you.

"Ah... Red. I see you have returned. Blue and I were expecting you." The Professor says. From some shadow-even though there are not-within the room, Blue strides out. He nods at you silently before you both turn back to the Professor.

"Do you have the package?"

You approach his desk and drop it off.

"Good..." The Professor mutters as he opens the package delicately. Inside was a steel container, which the Professor opened without any hesitation. Inside that, was many stacks of paper.

"Ah, you are probably wondering what this is," Oak takes a slow draw of his cigar. "I think you deserve to know, both of you. A while ago, a company called Silph Corporation got... ambitious. Some of their upper management and some middle management from Team Rocket decided it was a smart idea to steal. Now, boys, I am not against such a thing normally and I would not so actively punish them for this but...

"..._They stole from __**me**_." The cigar in his hands incinerated itself so quickly that not even fine ash was left. After a moment, Professor Oak cleared his throat. "Ahem. As I was saying, they wanted the plans to a stable matrix, one of the requirements for the creation of a ball that would capture any pokemon, no matter what. And since _I_am the only one who has the capability to create such a matrix, they thought it was a good idea to steal. From. Me."

His chair swerved around. Even you could barely keep your glaze straight as his glare pierced through you. "Now... I am a patient man. I will have my due when I say I will have it. It is good that the original plans are returned." He pats the papers in his hands. "However, Silph Corporation has already created one prototype from my designs. Good thing for us, they didn't dare share my blueprints, so they cannot create another. However... this group of individuals, and their organizations, will... pay me back, with interest."

He seems to have calmed down after a moment. Professor Oak turned away from you and you hear a click as he lights up another cigar. "These thieves had the audacity to call their prototype the... _Master Ball_. Silly, silly."

"New missions will come every month now, as... _preparations_need to be made. Hm... Go and develop your pokemon or your covers." He takes a slow drag before adding, "Unless you have something else you want to add?"

Blue takes this occasion to leave. He seems to have conflicting emotions on his face, but he gave you a silent signal that he'll meet you outside.

"Professor, may I inquire-"

"Yes, yes, come pick up a newborn Abra in 2 days. Is there anything else?"

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 2**

You take out your PokeGear and load the two videos, one of the golden bird and one that you had downloaded from the Rocket Grunt's PokeGear. "I have two videos."

"Load them onto computer then."

The first video loaded; it was golden bird swooping down at you before the video had gone into white noise and you couldn't see anything anymore. Golden light from the bird seemed to fill the room. Professor Oak paused the video at different segments and slowly removed the veil of divine light that shrouded our view of the golden bird. The result was a multicolored bird with predominantly white, red and green feathers.

"Interesting, Red." Professor Oak stroked his chin. "This will be something I'll have one of the assistants look into... To appear in Route One of all places..."

The other video was something that looked like the Rocket Grunt had taken it from the inside of his pocket. It was vague images of a dark laboratory, with glowing tanks filled with primordial green liquids. At the center of the lab: an incomplete pokemon that you had never seen before. You know it is incomplete because it is still missing half of its body, but it looks like something that was created from scratch, with only genetic material...

"Ah, keep what you saw in this video a secret for now, alright, Red? I'll explain why, later." Professor Oak requested.

"I also caught a Red-"

"Gyarados. Yes." Oak leaned forward in his seat, the charizard-leather seat barely making any sound. "Just leave a few scales with me and that should be all. If anything though, try to use it as little as possible. Something like that usually catches too much attention, you know."

You nod. You unball Mr. Fish and set out to collect a few DNA samples from her for Professor Oak. It was done in minutes.

"If that is all, I'll see you tomorrow."

You exit the building. As you walk out the door, you see Blue next to the door, waiting for you.

"Hey, Red."

You nod.

"Do you have any idea what you want to do with your pokemon yet? What do you want..." Blue slows down, crouching, brooding, thinking. "What do you want to accomplish?"

You shrug.

"I... I want to become the strongest. The strongest there ever was..." He looks back at you, with hopeful eyes, "That's a good goal to thrive for, isn't it? That would make this more than just a cover, right? But... it'll be so lonely at the top, I bet."

He grips your shoulders, holding you, "So! I want you to want the same! Won't you? Can't you?"

**"Hell yeah! I bet I'll beat you there! "**

"Perhaps," you grip his shoulders as he does yours, "but it's a great view up there. How about we make a wager?"

"Oh?" Blue's eyes opened wider, curiosity filled his expression. "What's this? Red starting a bet?"

"Laugh it up," you scoff, before saying, "I bet I'll be at the top before you."

"Ha! Alright." Blue laughed, slapping you on the back. "I'll take that bet! And what'll be the prize?"

"That whoever gets up there second will have to knock the winner off the top, obviously." You roll your eyes.

Blue nods. "Alright then. I'll see you tomorrow then, Red." He walks away laughing his head off, "Beat me there! Ha!"

Where to now?

[PokeGear][8:30 AM]

**Go 'Home'**

You walk into the front door, seeing Delia 'Ketchem' in only a fluffy, red bath rob with her hair still wet. "Oh, you're back, huh," she asks nonchalantly, "I saw the girl upstairs."

Delia has been with you since you were 8 years old. She took care of you through most of what you could remember, so you have had wanted her acknowledgment or acceptance in the sense of a child to a parent for quite some time now. She didn't reciprocate the feeling, but she did not rebuff you either.

"I hope you're using protection," Delia says, turning back to her coffee and newspaper.

You protest, flustered.

"Heh, I'm just teasin' ya kid," she says as she takes a long sip of coffee. "Ah... Mm, right. I only asked because you never know with kids these days," she said with a smirk, not looking up at you.

You walk upstairs and see that, Misty had somehow shrugged all her cloths off and tucked herself snugly into your bed. And when you had returned home, all you did was drop her on your bed too. You probably can't awake her up for a while...

You tinker around with the looted weapons. You might as well, considering you aren't spending this valuable time training your pokemon instead. You take apart all the guns and ammunition that you had looted last night. All of them seem to be unmarked except for the gun. But all the gun had was a small, uncolored 'R' on the end of the gun. You could even scrap it off later.

You worked under Handler Delia for the last four years. During that time, you took orders from her, who received orders from one of the agents working under Professor Oak. You do not know their names. Professor Oak also has over five dozen researchers working in Pallet Town under him who can _help_you, but are not obligated to obey anything you say.

At this point, you are now an agent working directly under the Illusive Professor. After so many years, are you now his field agent and the one to carry out his will, or in some cases, his wrath. Some of the assistants jokingly call you and Blue and whoever else working directly for Oak, his Hands or Inquisitors, after a several-hundred-year-old science-fiction series which had an Emperor who had agents working similar duties as you.

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 3**

You arrive back at the Lab, to the confusion of the assistants. You hand over your pokemon, including pikachu, who all need some healing of some kind. You notice a pattern in Professor Oak's assistants; they are all very curvy females.

"You should probably get some sleep, Red," one of them speaks soothingly to you. "You look very tired."

After doing what they could all of your pokemon are healed, except Pigeon. During the fight, Ekans had shattered the poor bird's back. It didn't help that bird pokemon all had weaker, hollow bones either-Pigeon will be unable to fly for the rest of his life.

"You can leave pidgey here, if you wish, Red. I'm sure, over time, the injury will heal."

Deposited Pigeon.

It is nearly noon by the time things are done; it is about 11:30 AM. You return home and nearly collapse onto the couch, unable to muster up the strength or the will the walk the stairs.

Pikachu takes this opportunity to raid your refrigerator.

Misty comes down and smiles brightly as she sees you. "Satoshi! You're back!"

There is a knock on the door. It is a soft rapping that you know only Green does when she is nervous.

You also just realized that Rattata had gained a level since you last saw him, earlier.

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 3.2**

You point to the kitchen and look at Misty. "You should go get some food, I'm sure that's just a friend at the door."

"Alright," Misty nods and heads into the kitchen. It looks like she is having a staring contest with pikachu over a ketchup bottle.

You open the door to see a nervous LeafGreen. When the door opened, she looked up and squeaked. "Ah! Red... Um, can I talk to you for a minute?"

You shrug. You're only about to collapse, so you motion her inside.

The two of you sit down in the living room. She scoots a little closer to you than necessary.

"Red, I've been reading that traveling on a pokemon quest is very dangerous." She begins. She starts fidgeting and playing with her fingers, "You could die out there without someone watching your back, or if you're not Gary. S-so... so... do you think we can travel together starting tomorrow?"

It looks like she also brought a stack of books that warned about the danger of traveling alone. She seems to have been planning to ask you for some time.

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 3.3**

"Green..."

"Leaf! My name is Leaf," She insists while blushing rather happily. She seems to like it when you call her by that nickname.

"Right, Green. Look, you know I had to run an errand for the Professor a few days ago, right?"

She nods.

"Well..." You go on to explain the troubles that you were met with when you traveled to Viridian City. You also add that you met a trainer along the way, who helped you, but even then you barely got out of the city alive. Of course, the rendition that you tell is heavily edited.

"...And she told me poor Pigeon will not make it. It'll be years before he's fully recovered from that mess."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Green leaps and hugs you, only to bounce back, redder than ever. "I, er..."

"It's alright," you smile kindly at her, "What I'm trying to say is, I'd love to travel with you. But we will be traveling with the trainer who helped me out too, alright?"

"Oh... sure!" Green nods happily, "Where is he? I'm guessing you're keeping him somewhere right? There's no hotels in town, after all." She giggles.

Pikechu runs out of the kitchen with a ketchup bottle, and leaps into your lap.

"W-wait, pikachu!" Misty runs out of the kitchen, chasing your friend.

"She's right here." You say, casually, "Meet, Misty. Misty, meet Green."

They both pause for a moment, before Green punches you on the arm. "Leaf!"

"Hello, you're Satoshi's friend then?" Misty approaches Green.

Green stands up and clasps hands with Misty, "You've got to tell me all about your trip. And all the juicy bits! Sato, we're gonna borrow your bedroom!"

As they walk up, Green whispers to you, "I don't trust her Sato; she's hiding something..."

They move up to your bedroom, giggling and whispering about girl things. Or whatever. At least now you're free to do whatever you want. Pikachu is guzzling on ketchup next to you, ignoring the whole mess.

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 3.4**

You glance down at the screen. Ugh. It seems that the girls are still talk about you for some reason. Something about your body and size and... You squint, not quite comprehending what they are alluding to.

Misty Clearwater is a fake name, a pseudonym, as you suspected. Using the cameras within your room, you scanned her face instead and found several profiles matching her features, but only one that matches both her age and her background, from what you know.

According to Oak's profiling:

_[Hanada, Kasumi]  
>Gender: Female<br>Age: 14?  
>Current Status: Missing<em>

Bio: Youngest daughter of the family that founded Cerulean City (Once Hanada CIty). The city gym has currently been taken over by the ninjutsu using Sekichiku* clan of Fuchsia city. Koga has allowed the daughters of the previous owner to leave, giving them an allowance to go on a "world tour"**. Kasumi was last rumored*** to have been pursuing a family legend**** that states a trainer of her family would receive greater power at a part of the Seafoam Islands.

Father is currently dead.  
>Sister(s)***** currently in Narita.<p>

*-See Sekichiku Ninja.  
>**-See Hanada Sisters.<br>***-Sources: [

_This part is blacked out by Professor Oak]__  
>****-See Hanada Clan Legend.<br>*****-Sources: [__This part is blacked out by Professor Oak]_

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 3.5**

You save the Hanada Kasumi profile to your PokeGear, along with information on Sekichiku ninja, the Hanada Sisters performance, and the Hanada Clan legend.

You are able to grab a quick skim of all of it before you feel too tired to focus.

_Sekichiku ninja: ninja who specialize in assassination and poisons._  
><em><br>Hanada Sisters: a live performance with water pokemon, in water or on ice. Very popular these days with young or older men._

_Hanada Clan legend: a bird of pure ice will bestow power upon their clan members who pay respects to it._

Ignoring the girls, you take a shower and then collapse on your bed.

...

...The sky is yellow, orange, and red. It is 5:00 PM. You're very hungry. There are some heavy things on your body. You look up, but can barely get up.

It looks like Green, Pikachu, and 'Misty' all decided to sleep on you.

Tomorrow is the day you leave. You have a couple of hours now and then. What do you do?

**Preparation Daze! Pt. 3.6**

You nudge the girls awake. Both of them seem embarrassed to have been caught laying their heads on various parts of your body. Pikachu was happy to shock them a little so. They glared at pikachu, but they couldn't really stay mad at your wingmancute critter for long.

"Sato, I made dinner for you, it's down stairs!" Green perks up.

Misty adds, "I helped too!"

You walk down stairs and see Delia, who was just setting the plates. "It's a good thing I was here, girls, or else the food would be cold and stale by now," she scolds.

They look sheepish.

It was surprisingly good. Apparently Green is a very good cook, and she had originally studied to be a pokemon breeder for a while before changing her goals towards a trainer's license. It had something to do with you too, but it was probably nothing.

"_Satoshi_," Delia says in a sweet voice as you dig into the meal, "you _shouldn't go_ to Viridian City for a while. It's pretty busy right now, what with all the fuss going on. Why don't you _stay_ in Route 1 for a while... say _half a month_, before going forward?"

You nod absentmindedly as you keep eating.

Misty looks a little nervous, especially when Delia mentioned Viridian City.

After dinner, Green bids you goodbye and hugs Misty rather intimately before leaving. Misty didn't comment on it so you don't either.

"You can take the bed, and I'll take the couch," you yawn, having not had enough rest from the previous nap you took. Pikachu is playing with your rattata right now, both seem intent on biting each other's neck off-all in the name of friendly competition, of course.

You sleep, planning what to do next...

**The Big Day!**

You knew something was wrong the moment you woke up with Misty somehow sleeping on you again. Well, that wasn't what indicated what was wrong. Outside, you can hear a wild clamor of things as if something major is happening. Gently pushing Misty onto the couch while you slipped out, you dress yourself up. Oh, that's nice of Delia to have cleaned your armored jacket and pants for you. She left a little note on there however:

"_Don't forget to change your underwear!_-Delia"

You crumple the note and look out the windows. There is a crowd of people, all clamoring to see something. Some of them are your neighbors, some of them are foreigners. There are a few camera crews around too. At the center of things, is an expensive, red sports car. You can tell it is heavily armored with some additional surprises built in too.

Ah.

You see Blue standing next to the car, with a bunch of girls cheering at him.

"-_A historical occasion, I'm sure, as you can see the grandson of the illusive Professor Oak ready to take on his Pokemon Journey_-" You can hear the news woman speaking with eagerness into her microphone.

You get dress and get ready to go to Oak's to get your License too. Misty is suddenly awake and following you too. She was dressed to leave when she was sleeping on you, actually.

Pikachu yawns as he jumps on your shoulder.

You also remember to grab bite for breakfast before you leave.

You arrive at Oak's Laboratory after a long time trying to push through the crowd of people. Most of them seemed intent on getting 'Gary's signature for their pieces of paper for some reason. Strange.

You walk up the steps and see the Assistant. She hands you a model HANDY505 Pokedex and a single pokeball. "That's your abra," she says unnecessarily. "Professor Oak is busy at the moment, but reminds you to take Delia's suggestion into consideration."

As you move again, you see Green waving at you at the edge of the crowd.

"Satoshi! You're late! Oh, and Misty too!" She runs over and hugs Misty. You see that after she let go, she still had an arm around Misty's waist. "Gary sure is stirring up a crowd, isn't he?"

You nod.

"Well, I guess that's what you get for being the genius grandson of a Professor," Green sighs.

"Wait a minute," Misty frowns, "That's Gary Oaks?" She blinks and turns to you. "Didn't you call him Blue?"

"Oh, that's just the nickname we picked for each other, right, Satoshi?" Green intervened with a smile. "I think we called you... Red."

The crowd had dispersed, following after Blue's awesome, armored sports car, leaving you, Green and Misty relatively alone.

"You got a bulbasaur?"

Green grins at you shyly; she seems to be staring at your pants. "It has tentacles..."

Received:  
>-Abra (Lv. 5)<br>-Pokedex (505)

Green's Team:  
>-Bulbasaur (Lv.5)<p>

You thank the assistant and ask for any jobs that they might have for you.

"Oh, there's nothing on the list right now," she says, "but if you like, the area around town could use some cleaning up. There's an awful lot of pidgeys in the area lately and their... excrement... does not match the town very well. Our Machokes have not killed all the rattatas around the area either, so if you have time and would like to help, then I'd be happy if you wiped out the local pidgey and rattata nests."

You nod and leave. As you leave, you scold Green, "No matter what certain literature may claim, it isn't just like saying hello in the Orange League."

She peers at you curiously before understanding what you mean and blushing. "Well, it isn't... that... if the ah, _victim_enjoys it too, right?" She smiles shyly at you.

**Day One**

While taking the girls on a short trip, you try to train your pokemon.

Poliwag: in the first day, you tried to train poliwag's movement speed and water manipulation. Her ability with her speed is still weak, but she quickly got the hang of shooting water from her mouth. So far, she's still only been able to make one long burst of water. She is trying hard on her speed, but no luck so far.

Pikachu: For every lap that you run, pikachu is able to outlap you three to five times, depending on how he feels like. Just for fun, he kept charging his electricity in short bursts when he was running. Now you are making him run the laps without stop, and charging his electricity without stop. He looks very tired. But even as he staggers along, his pouches are still sparkling with excess lightning. You run with pikachu for a few more laps before realizing that the lightning is starting to hit you. Electrical control needs work, you see.

Rattata: you got him to work with poliwag on speed. He seems to be improving his speed rather well. After half an hour, he got bored and started working with Green's Bulbasaur, who got tired very quickly. However, after continuously trying to provoke the Bulbasaur to attack him, rattata is now working with Bulbasaur on conditioning.

Mr. Fish: Mr. Fish is psychologically afraid of you. Other than that, she has been rampaging through Route 1, eating all the pidgeys and rattatas she could find. You tell her to slap her tail against a tree, she accidentally breaks the tree in half, sending the free end of the tree flying several hundred feet. Muscle control needs work, you see.

Misty has been working whole team together to the bone. She seemed rather unhappy that she needed you to tell her to work her whole team as a team instead of individually, but she realized that she was just working with her pokemon too much for the event of an officiated battle, not for any other event.

Green has been happy to jog with you or simply help her Bulbasaur try to take down your rattata. So far, your rattata has been laughing at them both.

You realize that just conditioning is something that you pokemon can excel at but, you haven't gone into teaching them things like evasive maneuvers, dodging, or any specific kind of attacks that you think they can pull off...

The assistant lady thanked you for your efforts and said that she will contact you when your services are needed.

You tousle Green's hair, before she bats your hand away and tugs her hat back on. She giggles, half-nervous and half-joyous, "Heeheehee..." She seems to like your attention greatly.

**Day Two**

Misty seems unhappy with camping out in the open once again, at least compared to how happy she was to be able to sleep surrounded by protective walls and all that. But with your group, she felt a lot safer than when she was alone. She doesn't outright say this, of course, but you can see it in her eyes.

Her team seems able to work together well enough now, with her staryu spinning around faster, covering any holes in their defense. When your rattata, pikachu, and poliwag staged a mock battle, her shellder was able to take on all the punishment that pikachu and rattata were able to dish out and allow seel to knock your team out while staryu took down pikachu.

It was kind of embarrassing, but pikachu had been holding back on electrical attacks. That is, he didn't use them at all.

Pikachu: is still slowly lowering how to control his vast power. Once charged to full, he is able to blast a cylinder of pure electrical energy all the way into the clouds, with around a 10 meter radius. The result is several inches of the ground within that 10 meter radius being reduced to black glass and about 50 meters around pikachu being turned to charred earth. It takes him about a full minute of concentration to charge up this blast; it looks like his version of the Thunder technique. Perhaps better control of his power will allow him to use it faster too.

Poliwag: is still working on her speed. It is coming along slowly. Her speed is about equal to Bulbasaur's speed. Her conditioning is better however. She is able to mock battle Bulbasaur and win, but with her greater power, it isn't very hard. Instead, you have her running the track with pikachu. She gets tired after half an hour.

Mr. Fish: is, after all day's practice, able to only dent a tree and break it in half with tail whip now. She seems to have a lot of pent up energy. She still can't just tap a tree and not do much damage to it.

Rattata: is conditioning well to the training. It seems that all your other pokemon are monsters and only rattata is the normal one, who takes in training as you would have expected. He is now a little faster too.

Abra: sleeps for about 12 hours of the day due to abras all sleeping that long. She is unable to control it, but tries hard to stay up and watch you longer. You seem to feel something rubbing against your head, or rubbing against you inside your head, when she is awake. What do you want to do with her training, she seems to be trying to ask. She wants to join your other pokemon. Sitting there, she looks a little lonely. Sometimes, you imagine a lonely tear rolling down her cheeks.

During night times, Green keeps moving her sleeping bag closer to yours. It's a little annoying to wake up with one of her legs on you. It's keeping the temperatures of your own sleeping bag up and causing you to sweat a little. Otherwise, you don't say anything about it.

Later that day, you equip abra with Exp. Share. She seems to perk up a little before whimpering again.

It seems that the days are getting longer. Green keeps staring at your pants zippers and giggling. And then she would stare at bulbasaur and giggle more. Females are rather strange.

Misty seems to have caught it too, because they whisper to each other at night and giggle together. Then they would turn to you and the turn back to each other and giggle some more.

**Day 3**

"Abra."

She flinches before cooing and moving towards you. Something seems to be touching your mind again, but she could barely penetrate.

"Can you read my mind, Abra?" You ask.

She tilts her head and struggles. It seems like she is trying, but after a while, she signs and gives up. Pikachu moves over and tells you that abra isn't powerful enough to listen in on whatever is in your mind yet. She can only sense your emotions.

You tell abra to try to move things with her mind. However, she is just a newborn and is only able to move things the size of a pokeball. Then you tell poliwag to come here and shoot short spurts of water, and have abra try to dodge them with teleport. You call it combat-teleport, moving short distances many times in short bursts. Abra is wet a lot.

Abra is able to do so continually for about an hour before she fell asleep, unable to muster up any more psychic energy.

Pikachu: you have pikachu practice electrical control. Pikachu is mischievous and starts shooting off electricity in minuscule bursts like a gatling gun. He is able to fire about a hundred bursts of bolts with about a tenth of his thundershock, per minute. He is now running the track while shooting at the ground at this speed. There is a molten, glassy track on the side of Route 1 now.

Poliwag: is conditioning when not practicing with Abra. She is able to go on four hours before needing rest now. She is still not as powerful as pikachu however and still has problems defeating staryu in speed. She is faster than bulbasaur now however.

Rattata: is able to learn how to be 'rogue'. That is, he is learning how to sneak around stealthily. He is able to sneak up to any one in camp and yell "RATTATA!" before disappearing now.

Mr. Fish: jumped into the west side of Route 1, where there is the ocean. After a while, she beached and started sunbathing. The water is now red. You make her go back to muscle control techniques. She is able to only leave a huge dent the size of her fin into the trees now. Still, that means her fins dig several inches into the wood of the tree itself.

Abra: unlike other, less intelligent pokemon, abra is able to take in all the information of experience share. Since this experience share is now keyed to your pokeballs, which are keyed to your pokemon, abra gained insight on everything that they did. However, she does not have their body nor does she have their powers, so it is only minimally helpful for the little psychic. Still, the machine helped her own body condition and her own mind to gain evasive tactics that she was able to gleam from your other pokemon's minds due to this machine.

You propose the idea of sharing a sleeping bag since they are all sleeping on you anyway. The girls agree, and you are soon getting random limbs all over your body. It is starting to be harder and harder to sleep now, with the girls breathing all over you and their hands touching all parts of your body. Very hard to sleep. Green seems to enjoy it however, and in effect, Misty is following her lead, thinking it was something that you were supposed to do.

Green's bulbasaur can use four vine whips in his attacks now.

Misty's shellder's shell seems to be becoming stronger slowly. Her seel and staryu are working well together, having been long time friends anyway. Misty tells you that she has had these pokemon since she was born.

You ask the girls if they want to have a 'refresher' in self-defense. You are an expert after all.

In that instant, Green became so red that even Misty backed up for half a step before remembering this is _Green_. Green look at you with her eyes clouding over as if she were dreaming with her eyes wide open. You can barely pick up her mumbling, "...hot, sweaty bodies... rubbing together... delicious... Mmm... tagteam..."

You shrug. Green is... Green.

**Day 4**

You begin to teach the girls basic self-defense techniques. Misty seems to have a handle on things so once you've taught her enough, you assigned her to Green, while you turned around to watch occasionally. They both had some small scraps and bruises, but nothing too dangerous, so you return to your own training.

You grab the whip, having never used one before in your life. However, it feels... nice in your hands. It is made from what feels like Tauros hide, going up to about 3 meters in length. Misty commented on how it reminded her of an old film that her father liked, something about a holy cup and nazis. You don't really know what nazis are, considering it has been hundreds of years since that film was initially released, so you just shrugged and nodded.

True to your 'Fighter' nature, by the end of the day, you could pick berries off of trees with the bullwhip. However, compared to your skill in fighting using a knife, it falls behind. Perhaps more practice is needed?

Rattata: you assigned rattata to tackle any of the pokemon in camp. If they cannot defend against it, then it counts for him. It was originally a way for him to practice stealth and assassination, but he started picking on only the weakest of foes: bulbasaur and abra. Smart. But you prohibited him from targeting those that could barely protect themselves despite their potential for growth. Abra is only 5 days old! Then rattata began targeting Mr. Fish, who was too big to keep the rat from hitting her unless she accidentally made him into paste. So you told him he could only target staryu or pikachu. Now you don't even know where he is anymore, but you can feel something watching you.

Pikachu: learned to fire lightning from his fur. Or more specifically, from the back of his fur. At the output of also about a tenth of his thundershock per second, this strange technique is reminiscent of Volt Tackle, except it is a sustained ability. At the moment, pikachu is running around the track using his 100 bolts/min attack with this at the same time. All you see is a giant circle of electricity. And a lot of smoking, charred earth.

Poliwag: is controlling the water in her mouth better and can swap between short bursts and long bursts instantly now. But otherwise, just maintaining conditioning.

Abra: is able to keep herself dry most of the time now. In her sleep, she stuck to sleeping on your shoulders. You let her thus far because she is incredibly light for her size, barely heavier than pikachu, who weighed practically nothing. She seems to have learned to probe your mind in her sleep. At least, that is what it feels like. She also learned to hold on to your neck while she sleeps, making it hard to detach her from your shoulders.

Mr. Fish: could now tail whip a tree and only have it shake its leaves off. But then after a moment, the tree collapses. You slapped your forehead, before telling Mr. Fish to continue.

Misty's pokemon seemed to be willing to have mock combat with rattata and poliwag when they are not busy. When pikachu came in without any electricity, your team still can't beat her team, but you are catching up. Her pokemon seems to have realized that, so they are joining your pokemon in their conditioning now.

Green's bulbasaur is working well with poliwag. She is also draining every excess bit of water that poliwag left, be it for abra's teleport practice or for mock combat. She can also use five independent vine whips now at the same time.

At the end of the day, Green approached you for 'holds' training. She wanted to experience them done to her, apparently. So you put her in different holds, and she seems to be breathing harder and blushing even though she did not exert her body. It was strange, so you made her use holds on you. It took some coaching, but she seems to like breathing down your neck.

The girls are as clingy as yesternight this night too. Misty seems to be feeling like she was being left out so she decided to place herself between you and Green. Green's limbs seem to have just accommodated and grab both of you instead.

You also received a call from Delia to meet her tomorrow morning for an optional mission, should you want to do it. Rewards: Greatball (x5)

**Op. Mission 1! Pt.1**

You return to your home with Green and Misty in tow. Green is somewhat ambivalent about returning so quickly, saying it doesn't feel like she even left on her pokemon journey at all. However, Misty calmed her down. Misty seems to be understanding enough about all this.

_Hey Red,_

I want you to go to the entrance of Diglett's Cave passed Viridian City and check up on some activity there. One of the guys is moving some boxes of stones. Make sure the guy and his friends are taken care of and the boxes are returned here. Be careful about the rockets.

Love,  
>Mom<p>

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 1.2**

You travel with the girls across Route 1 at a rapid pace, faster than planned. All the wild fauna and critters seem to be actively avoiding you. Green seems unhappy that she isn't able to find any critters to enslave, but she shrugs it off easily and goes back to clinging to your arm whenever possible.

**Day 5**

With Abradorable on your shoulders, she has been randomly throwing things around Route 1, slowly increasing the size of things being thrown around. While her ability to move things with her mind has not increased in mass, she has been able to move more things frequently. That is, she is able to use her telekinesis to move pokeball sized objects at a higher frequency than days before.

Green's bulbasaur is able to use 6 vine whips at the same time now. However, there isn't enough trees around to play Spiderman, so Green had her bulbasaur combine the vine whips together. It took her bulbasaur some trying, but how it can walk around in the air like a bipedal creature by combining each 3 whips into one thicker whip as a "leg".

Misty is playing with one of your knives lately. She seems to get an odd glint in her eyes when she is playing with it. Her skill isn't up to par or close to yours yet, but she is adept enough at it.

Now, you are at the edge of Route 1, just a few dozen paces from Viridian City. Pikachu and Rattata report that there is still heavy Rocket presence in the city.

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 1.3**

Pikachu sits on your shoulder next to Abradorable, who is also holding Misty and Green's hands. You warned them this is the first time Abradorable has teleported something other than herself, so you don't know how it would work... but it works. Each teleport goes about somewhere between 50 to 100 meters at a time, faster than walking around. However, more than half of the times, your group all land in thorny bushes or muddy puddles or... some other thing. It seems that Abradorable's teleport is not perfected yet for humans. Still, considering that she is still hit by poliwag in about two out of ten shots, she is doing fine.

Within a few hours, you are at the other side of Viridian City, outside its outskirts. You can see a few specks of black, indicating some Rocket Grunts in the distance, but none approaching you or even seeing you at all.

On the down side, Abradorable teleported you next to an old man who seems to be either looking for his dentures or coffee or something. You can't really understand his mumbling, other than that he wants to hit you with his cane and teach you how to catch pokemon. You escape quickly, with the girls, via teleport before you are roped into this mess.

As you approach Diglett's Cave, a ping goes off in your PokeGear's map indicator. It seems that you are close to one of the cave entrances that will be the drop off. However, the drop off will not occur for another day.

**Day 5.5**

Abradorable is able to teleport multiple humans now. However, after that whole hour of constant teleportation, she seems to be exhausted. By the end of the trip, she nearly fell off your shoulders. You have balled Abradorable for now.

You have until **Day 7** for when the drop off occurs.

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 1.4**

"Satoshiiii~ this hasn't been like a normal pokemon trainer's journey so far. Why are we at the Diglett's Cave?" Green asks curiously, "I'm not really complaining. I mean, I bet bulbasaur could help me capture a Diglett just fine, but why aren't we going inside?"

You explain to her slowly that you are about to face off against a militant shadow organization and steal their smuggled evolutionary stones.

"This is the errand your _mom_wanted you to run for her?" She asks incredulously.

You shrug, but Misty comes to your rescue.

"Red is doing a good thing here, Green," Misty starts, "I bet whoever is smuggling illegal stones are probably up to no good. He's just helping out the world!"

"Yeah, he's a big softy in there," Green giggles as she pokes your chest lightly. "But still, there's no reward in this, you're just being one of this _hero of justice_types, aren't you, Sato?"

Ah, it feels like a landmine filled question. Still, you try to explain that you are being reward for this, albeit in greatballs.

"Really? I heard they aren't even available to trainers unless we have the approval badge of two gym leaders _and_you can only get them at special vendors!"

Misty added in, "But there's plenty of league-approved vendors around, and getting two isn't _that_hard."

Green shrugs, "How would you know, Misty? Do you have two badges already?"

"W-what does that have to do with this?" Misty blinked, "No, I don't have any badges, I'm not a league licensed trainer."

Now it was Green's turn to blink. "Oh..." she muttered, and then turned to you. "Where'd you pick her up, Sato?"

"_Pick her up?_I'm not... not... not a..."

"Calm down, Misty!" Green backed up a little. "I didn't mean it like that, and you know it! But practically everyone worth their salt gets a license as soon as they can, even if they aren't trying to get all the badges! It's like getting a driver's license!"

"Really?" Misty asks, blinking in confusion. You echo this sentiment silently behind her.

Green sighs and plants her head in her palms, "I can understand Satoshi, but you too, Misty? Ugh... both of you act like you've been living under a rock or something..."

You calmly forget to mention that you did train under a rock for several months of your life.

"Fine, fine..." Green rolls her eyes jokingly at the two of you. "I'll play along. It's not like we've got anything else to do. Plus, I bet the road's pretty much cleared by Gary right now, so if we wait a while, there'll be better ah... prey anyway."

Misty just giggled behind Green nervously.

**Day 6**

When you woke up, you found that Green had sneaked off into the Diglett's Cave and left you a simple note saying so. She used Misty's body to keep you from noticing she was missing, apparently. You scold yourself, perhaps it is time to up your own awareness training?

You set up some traps in the surrounding area, but many of them are nearly instantly set off by the local critters: Nidorans. From the plateau on top of the cliff overlooking both Viridian City and the Diglett's Cave, you can see several herds of wild Nidorans running around. After several deaths of their packs, they seem to be more agitated. You might need to be more careful. However, you also remember that Nidokings and Nidoqueens were some of the most powerful pokemon-at least on television and in league matches. They will be good for official matches and are easier to find than say... Tyranitars.

Around mid-day, all the traps that you had set up were activated and destroyed. However, in that time, Misty's pokemon and poliwag had taken time to turn most of the ground in the 50 meter radius of the Cave into flowing mud. They had taken many hours and you estimate, with Misty's help, that this wet surface will last for another day. However, pikachu cannot use this surface to conduct electricity due to the dirt mixed in.

Abradorable has learned enough about teleportation that she is able to evade all missile attacks at her by now. However, during combat, she thinks she still cannot teleport far or too rapidly. You think she is just being modest. She can also throw items with the size of a pokeball at a target now, but the strength of her telekinesis throw is still weak. It is only about half as strong as one of your punches.

Rattata and Pikachu had taken the time to scout out most of the forests surrounding the Cave, getting to know the area well enough. You cannot release Mr. Fish here because she would be seen even from Viridian City.

Around mid-day, Green returned. After a harsh frown from you and a light scolding from Misty, she told you that she had caught two digletts. When asked how or why, she just smirked at you and said, "...That... is a secret~!"

[Green's Team]  
>-Bulbasaur Lv. 8<br>-Diglett Lv. 12  
>-Diglett Lv. 14<p>

You now have only one night left to prepare for an unknown number of targets led by a single leader. Your mission is still the same: kill them all and return with all their loot.

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 2**

Even at this age, your natural instincts wake you up when you need it to. It is like an internal alarm clock that is always on time. So exactly at 4 AM in the morning, you wake up and wake your companions.

You have assigned Green to overlook this assignment from the cliffs, more for her safety than anything else. You can see her pouting at you even now.

Misty volunteered to back you up from the ranged distances. She reasoned, "I have shellder protecting me from anything too harmful, and seel and staryu are at their best from far away."

Bulbasaur helps both of you lower yourself down the cliff before disappearing into hidden spots you had picked last night, along with Green. She is still pouting.

You see the small area of the clearing up ahead, it looks flimsy to your well trained eyes, but you hope it is enough. With the help of Mr. Fish, you had been able to dig a pit about 15 meters deep and about 50 meters in radius. Seel had helped turn everything inside into hundreds of 2 meter tall icy spikes. It has about 1 meter of water inside. Bulbasaur helped cover it up with rattata and pikachu gathering much of the older branches and leaves to help cover it up. The leaves and many, many vines covering it are all soaked with water. Thanks to your Mr. Fish's muscle training she has not left any trail or noticeable signs of her even being there in the first place.

At this moment, you allow rattata scout the area. He is so well hidden that even you have a hard time spotting him. He seems to have taken to jumping on tree branches. But due to his stealth practice, he has enough control to not disturb the branches themselves, making him seem like a flying blur at times.

Pikachu is at your side, unwilling to leave. He seems anxious, you understand better: he wants to see blood spill. He longs for it. He misses it... You are forced to pat him on the back to calm him down. He almost made a spark.

You had left Abradorable behind with Green. With bulbasaur there, Abradorable is well hidden. Her only mission is to move trainer's pokeballs away from their hands when possible. She seems a little nervous, but after you paid some attention to her, she now seems a little anxious instead. Green is still pouting, and you can see her fingering her diglett's pokeballs.

Green's digletts were both thoroughly exhausted by the quick work last night. They can still fight, but they looked like they were about to fall asleep. That was four hours ago, you do not know if they are better yet, so you had her keep them in their pokeballs.

You are about 50 meters away from the trap, while Misty is about 15 meters behind you. Green is up on the cliff, about another 25 meters behind Misty, but about 50 meters above her too.

After about one hour, the sound of feet against dried leaves and and breaking branches reach your ears. How unprofessional. You see a group of 8 Team Rocket Grunts led by a higher level Associate walking towards the cave. Pikachu says they are all with two pokeballs and have at least a pistol. There are three machops and one machoke behind them, pushing large crates of goods. There is a Hypno at their front, walking beside the Associate. He seems dangerous. Pikachu sees, from about 150 meters away, that the Associate has 8 other pokeballs on his ball, with one visible gun holster. He is also wielding a thin, white cane with a diamond-like gem on top. He is wearing a lot of gold too.

They will be here soon.

[Machoke Lv. 28]  
>[Machop Lv. 11]<br>[Machop Lv. 11]  
>[Machop Lv. 11]<br>[Hypno Lv. 32]

[Rocket Grunt #1]  
>[Rocket Grunt #2]<br>[Rocket Grunt #3]  
>[Rocket Grunt #4]<br>[Rocket Grunt #5]  
>[Rocket Grunt #6]<br>[Rocket Grunt #7]  
>[Rocket Grunt #8]<br>[Rocket Associate]

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 2.2**

Abradorable teleports behind you silently. Her senses for what you are thinking has been slowly expanding for the last few days. It seems like she is not yet able to read your mind in the psychic sense, but she is able to predict what you are thinking on some level due to her vast intellect. As your fist clenches around Mr. Fish's pokeball, you nod to Abradorable.

She nods back silently.

All the while, the Rocket caravan is about 130 meters away. You toss Mr. Fish's ball up-

-the red laser of the ball barely lets Mr. Fish's form loose, not even fully formed-

-Abradorable is on the form and teleports again. Her practice with poliwag has paid off enough that she could link multiple teleports at a time. However, to teleport something of Mr. Fish's size...

The enemy Hypno looks up, seeing a red laser highlighted form above it falling, gaining velocity. Hypno's eyes widened at the sight of the one-ton monstrosity thrashing down towards it at a rapid speed it cannot stop. With its psychic enhanced speed, Hypno used the first ability that came to its mind: Hypnosis, its signature technique. However in its haste to stop the raging red gyarados from crushing its head like a fruit, it did not take into consideration one factor: gravity.

As the powerful hypnosis spell reaches Mr. Fish's eyes, the gyarados' full weight collapses upon the powerful mind-psychic's body, fang first. Near instantly, the Hypno is pierced by the four largest incisors, utterly destroying its shoulders and its thighs, as a hundred other smaller teeth bite down on the evolved pig-psychic. With a screech-like squeal, the light in its eyes fade away just as Mr. Fish's eyelids droop down-

-Pikachu leaps out from behind Mr. Fish's many scales, his entire body charging with thunderous electrical power. It was a pure aura of electrical power, charged as far as the short time limit allowed. Stray electrical currents shot wildly throughout the air and scorching Pikachu's surroundings as he charged at the Associate, lightning blazing. The volt tackle was a beauty to behold, even as it instantly melted the many gold chains and piercing on the Rocket Associate's being.

Rattata chose that moment to charge down and take a bite from Machoke's throat. It missed, due to the Machoke's speedy physical reflexes, but a streak of blood could be seen on the Machoke's chest and arms-

-Misty had gotten trigger happy and commanded her pokemon to shoot from the bushes. Their combined power enough to wash all but the Machoke towards the pits...

...And the frightened and shocked Rocket Grunts, not fully comprehending what just occurred, moved away from the pressurized water towards the traps, just enough for them to fall in. Their screams: music to your ears.

Alone, the Machoke's eyes grew red with bloodrage and battlelust. He roars mightily, charging at Pikachu, who had just used up his full charge...

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 2.3**

You shout for Misty to take care of those that fell in the trap and for Poliwag to cover Pikachu with a bubble screen. It wasn't enough, as Machoke just tore right through it.

"Got it, Sato!" She shouts, moving out of cover and towards the pits immediately.

Abradorable couldn't raise Mr. Fish, who seemed to be having a relatively dreamless sleep. She wasn't fidgeting like she normally would when she started dreaming about you.

You call for Pikachu to get away, but he seems to be injured from some sort of defense mechanism in the Rocket Associate's clothing. You signal for Abradorable to move him away as you run forward...

...Abradorable is able to teleport to Pikachu just in time, before the raging Machoke smashed with both hands at where Pikachu was. His attack caused multiple cracks in the ground, causing it to even tremble. But you move forth.

You shoot it once with an armor piercing round, blowing a hole in its chest. But it keeps coming, its anger fueling its rampage and allowing it to ignore its pain. You do not pause, you do not blink. Your machete unsheathes instinctively and you disappear to the Machoke's senses in a flash.

Its head rolls on the ground.

You look around at the devastation and then turn your attention to the pit. There seems to be two or three Rocket Grunts who survived and were battling against Misty's pokemon. They were still in the traps, but they seem to be taunting her.

Pikachu jumped forth without your command, and let loose another concentration of its power before it fell, tired.

At this moment, Green slid down the cliff, her expression numb. She seems to be trembling a little.

At least you got loot:  
>-Hidden Katana in Jeweled White Cane<br>-4 Nuggets (2 lb. molten gold)  
>-Various ruined Rocket Gear<br>-Rocket Associate's Data-pad  
>-Potions (x8)<br>-Machoke Belt (x1)  
>-Empty Pokeballs (x16)<br>-18000 Poke

Experience Gain:  
>-Pikachu +Lv. 1<br>-Mr. Fish +Lv. 3  
>-Poliwag +Lv. 1<br>-Bulbasaur +Lv. 1  
>-Diglett +Lv. 1<br>-Diglett +Lv. 1  
>-Staryu +Lv. 2<br>-Seel +Lv. 2  
>-Shellder +Lv. 2<br>-Rattata +Lv. 1  
>-Abradorable +Lv. 3<p>

**The Cleanup**

"See that?" You point down at the Rocket Associate, poking his smoking corpse with your brand new stick, "A pikachu that I have only trained for a single week did that." You poke the hole in the Associate's chest some more.

"Haaa..." Green's voice trailed off and squeaked at the same time. It was a curious sound. "Your Pikachu is a monster, Satooo..." She seems to be in a daze. "Wah... he's dead..." She kneels next to the dead man and claps her hands together.

You ask her what she is doing.

She opens one eye while leaving the other closed and peers at you, "I'm praying for the dead, silly. You don't want their _ghosts_coming back and haunting you, do you?" She says monotonously. She seems to be autorunning and still in shock.

Misty returned just before Green finished praying. The trap looks like it was filled up again. Mr. Fish had woken up about two minutes after, and apologetically followed Misty's orders, much to her surprise, and filled the whole hole.

Then, after you had stripped the bodies and destroy any evidence and any trackers, Mr. Fish disposed of the bodies.

"You're a... you're getting curiousier and curiousier, Sato-kun," Green mutters to you, with a low, sultry tone. Her knees are trembling still. As she tries to stand up, her legs fail her and cause her to collapse to the ground. "V-very curious," she mutters on the ground. "I... I don't think any pokemon is able to obey its trainer as well as yours. Even those that have been trained for years. W-what's your secret, I... I wonder?"

She clasps your cheeks, staring into your eyes intently. But after a moment, she blushes and turns away. "Ugh, I can't do this," she shouts, throwing her hands into the air. "Why can't you be unlikable or ugly or something?" She says as she turns away and calls Bulbasaur to her. "Time to go back to your ball, we're leaving. We... are leaving right?"

You nod. Green sighs in relief.

Misty returns again, now the scene having been restored to how it was before you were here. With everyone returned to their pokeballs, you have the girls grab Abradorable as you grab all the boxes of the stones. There are 5 crates. However, they are not as heavy or as big as Mr. Fish.

The Associate's Data-pad has a lot of information. Some of it is on this shipment:

_Date XX Month X Year XXXX  
>Shipment 44095<em>

Shipment of raw evolutionary stones from the Dark Continent, 5 crates. To be delivered to Vermilion through the Tunnel. Repackaging there and be ready to move to Saffron. Distribution to Celadon. Move from Celadon to Johto League, as requested by Elm.

Do be gentle with the crates, Associate S. Noope Dogg. They are blood stones worth more than all of your whores combined.

-Operator James

You are teleported with your companions and the crates to Pallet Town, just behind your home. Right after it is done, Green pukes, eyes streaming with tears.

**Op. Mission 1! Pt. 3.2**

Abra takes the stones and instantly disappears as you command, to take the goods to Oak's lab. She knows where it is, she grew up there. Or was born there. Or was created there. Something like that.

Misty heads in, giving Green a pitying glance before muttering to you that she was going to go hit the showers. You're on your own.

You silently rub Green's back awkwardly as she coughs out her previous meal. And the meal before that. Her eyes and cheeks are red and a little swollen, barely noticeable. Her eyelashes are wet with tears, but she tries to blink it away, just to face you.

You hook an arm around her waist, taking out an ornate handkerchief that you found in the Rocket Associate's chest pocket and wiping her face gently. You guide her inside, siting her on the couch while muttering soothing words gently. But you are not gentle. You... you tell her the truth, from your eyes.

This... this is the world and how it spins. It does not spin with goodwill and kindness, it does not seek only truth, justice, and freedom. The world, this world, is a cruel world. It is a mad, mad world that spins because it can and it does what it want because it can. But it is not pitch black; it is not hopeless.

While the world is cruel, there are still many who are not. Delia was never cruel to you. Misty was never cruel to Green. You love her, you tell her, the way she is, or was. You love Green for being Green, but it doesn't matter which Green as long as it is still her. You will be there for her, no matter what. She could make whatever choices she likes, and she can still have your shoulder to lean on.

She sighs at the end of each of your sentences. Each time you pause, her breath does too. She doesn't seem so hopeless, but she doesn't seem so hopeful either. She nods, her long lashes swaying gently as she blinks. You notice she has beautiful eyes, usually shadowed by her hat. She closes her eyes, and rests her head against your chest lightly but firmly.

"I know I don't know much about the world, Sato..." She mutters against your arm, her breath hot against your skin. "I... I have much to learn, to understand. I'm not giving up this easily, you know. I'm n-not that f-fragile. Really. I'm not! I-I'm strong. I'll be stronger... I'll be..."

She seems to have worn herself out. You replace yourself with a pillow. Well, she did wake up at 4 AM, and go to sleep at 11 PM just for this ambush. She must be tired. You found a blanket for her and tucked her in. You can talk to Misty later. Delia should be watching the house right now.

Abradorable teleports in, and takes you to Oak's Lab.

_You walk down the corridors, through the familiar halls. You delve into the darkness and you are in the spherical room once more. Across from you, the Professor is standing, watching the sunset from the screens. He is smoking a different brand this morning, but from the well ironed suit he is wearing, he must have been up for a while already._

"You must be wondering why I sent you on such a dangerous mission," he muttered. "No? No, of course you don't question this. You know this is all a test. A test for your training skills, your planning skills, your abilities in total... Hm. Satisfactory."

He turns to you, his electrical pupils glowing in the dim lighting. "You are a good agent, Red. Very good. You probably already figured out why I had you interfere with this exact batch of goods despite our two organizations having no animosity between us, no? Very good. But... I'll clarify. Elm's vision for the world is a world on fire. I am merely trying to douse that flame."

He takes a drag of his cigar before he sits down and turns his computer on. The screens change, black.

"He seeks... evolution. Evolution of humanity." The Professor says in his crisp voice, "Normally, I am not against that. However, his methods will leave millions dead, simply because they are not of the quality of genetic stock he requires. Billions more... will suffer."

The screens on all the sides of the room change. Now, displaying all the files on Professor Elm, the self-styled Lord of Change.

"This is but one small step in slowing him down. There are many resources in the Kanto region that he desires, most of all being the region itself. I will not allow that to happen, but if I expose my hand too early..." Professor Oak trails off. He turns to you with his hawk-like eyes and steel-like tone, "I have sent Blue on this quest, a quest to unite all of Kanto as its Champion. Our current Champion is... in someone else's pockets. Someone who benefits from our suffering."

The Professor crushes his cigar, a wave of fury on his face. Your heart skips a beat, your legs tremble as you step back unconsciously, and your body breakout in cold sweat. He looks down, sorrowful.

"He... Blue... cannot do it. He cannot do it alone." Oak sighs. "I want you to back him up, to take the position from him if need be, but Blue... he isn't fit for the front lines, no matter what he does. He is better as a planner. You, you on the other hand, are a leader... a fighter. Thus... I have two missions for you. Both... even either one, will take you a year at the minimum, to my estimates."

You nod, certain.

"Are you sure you want to take them? Alright then. They are simple. Destroy Team Rocket. Become the Champion. And then, once you have completed these two goals, lead Kanto as a true Champion would. And destroy Elm..."

Professor Oak takes a deep breath, calming himself down. "I know that is much to expect from you, Red. But this is for the Greater Good of humanity. Humanity... ah... it is always back to humanity." He lights a new cigar. "Blue is in Pewter City at the moment, challenging the Gym Leader for his support. Be wary, such a challenge is not for simply a token. It is for the Gym and its city to lay their lives at your feet. There is no greater challenge. Go."

You received 5 Greatballs!

* * *

><p><strong>A Moment's Rest! Pt. 1<strong>

You return home, feeling like you could do with some sleep too. Abra and Pikachu are outside the lab, playing in the bosoms of the curvy assistants. They see you and squeal. Abra teleports both Pikachu and you back home.

It looks like Misty has collapse too, on top of Green. Green is clutching the pimp cane that you had just acquired, in her hands rather tightly. You take a short nap next to them.

...

You wake to the smell of food. It is mom's... no, Delia's cooking. You can hear the sizzling sound of meat meeting oils and condiments echoing from the kitchen. The girls have gotten up too, both are helping with setting up the table.

You grab a quick shower-Delia doesn't like it when you go to the dinner table a mess.

After the shower, you come down and plop down next to Misty and Green, starving. Pikachu follows you too, while Abradorable sits on Delia's lap. She seems to have gotten a hang of sending single-word telepathic messages to people around her.

'_Delicious!_' The little abra squeals in your mind as Delia feeds her.

Misty has been watching you throughout dinner carefully. You turn to her in question so she speaks up, "Sato, what are you plans now?"

** Ask Abra.**

You ask Abradorable about how she was made, if she could remember it. She waves her arms around wildly, making strange shapes and says in your mind, "_Make! Green! Shiny! Not see? Try! Not know!_" Her cheeks puff up red and she pouts.

Delia giggles gently and says, "You could check with Naoko, she is the one working the breeding machines."

** Meet Associate**

You nod to yourself and to Delia. You agree to meet with her friend Naoko, but Delia reminds you, "She is probably having dinner with the Professor right now, and I suggest you ah... call her by the professional name, Sato-kun. It's best to be on your best behavior around Doctor Akagi."

You nod.

"So we're going to meet this Doctor tomorrow then?" Misty asks, "But why, Satoshi?"

You explain to her that you have something you want.

"Well, alright, but you promised to teach me how to use a knife, remember?" She looks are you suspiciously. "You're not trying to get out of that by getting more errands, are you?"

"Errands?" Green almost jumps from her seat. Her eyes twitch, swaying from Delia to you and then to Misty and then back to Delia. You place a hand on the back of her palms. She smiles at you gently but then pulls again with a look of determination. "I'd like to come along too! It'll be fun, I bet."

Delia giggles lightly, "Ah, to be young again."

You ask her what does that mean.

"Oh, you'll see," Delia smirks mischievously at you. "Do get some rest tonight, alright? You can go meet Nao-I mean, Doctor Akagi tomorrow."

Abradorable is cooing on Delia's lap, as Delia rubs her head playfully.

Later that night, as you fall asleep, you hear Green and Misty whispering to each other. They are talking in a hushed tone, so you have to strain yourself. But luckily they seem to believe that when you fall asleep, you are impossible to wake up. You did not bother dissuade them of this notion.

"Sato-kun is so... He's different, Leaf," Misty mutters.

Green nods, "I-I know. I know he's special... but..."

Misty sighs, "At least you've known him for a while. I've only known him for a few days, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around someone commanding pokemon so easily..."

"Tell me about it, with his Gyarados... It's... it's huge..."

"That's not the surprising part, you know?" Misty brushes a loose strand from her face. She then says, "The reason why no one ever uses a Gyarados in battle is because... well, it's _impossible_ to control them. Even with all the badges in place, with the strongest psionics being emitted, they still rampage without stop for _days._ And... and Satoshi just commands it, right after it evolves? It's... that's... _insane!"_She hisses.

Green nods, "before you guys came along, I was trying to get bulbasaur to follow me, because it wouldn't get inside its ball, but then the moment it saw Sato-kun..."

"I noticed that too... It's like he is some kind of prodigy..." Misty sighs again. "I should feel happy to be so lucky to travel with him, but I can't help be envious."

"You and me both..." Green mutters before yawning. "I'm tired, sleep?"

"Sleep..."

Both of the girls then walk to your bed and plop down on either side of you and cuddle up. "G'night..."

Early next morning, you go along with Green and Misty to Oak's Laboratory. On the way there, you split the money and give them both 8000 Poke and 2 of the greatballs you gained from the previous mission, which they accepted with hearty thanks.

You see that Doctor Akagi stands behind her computer as you enter. She is an slim Asian woman with faux blond hair. She is wear a short skirt under her thick lab coat.

"Ah, Agent Red, you're here. With _friends,_" Doctor Akagi said in the most deadpan and snark filled manner possible. "Alright, Delia called in a favor, so a deal's a deal. I heard you wanted a Gastly with the best of the best stats bred for you. That's fine. It could be done in 2 days. But I... I want something in return, you interested?"

You nod.

"In Viridian Forest, there is a solitary man who lives like a hermit. He stole something from my family, a very valuable artifact," Doctor Akagi mutters as she pulls out a thin manila envelope. Inside were several pieces of paper, one on a man named Tatewaki Kuno and another document on a Muramasa Sword. "I want you to return that sword to me. This madman calls himself Samurai, with no other name, but this is what I could gather about him thus far. Do it, and the Gastly is yours. Do you accept?"

_Tatewaki Kuno  
>The Lunatic Pokemon Trainer<em>

Heir to the once proud Kuno family that used to run the Gym of a region that is now lost in history due to natural disasters. This man is disillusion and seeks to return to the days of his past, where he was a respected swordsman. Reasons for being in Viridian Forest uknown.

Muramasa Sword #271

One of the unmarked Muramasa swords, this one one is passed down from the Akagi family line. It seems to retain its sharp edge even after over a thousand years since its creation. Its users usually die in horrible ways.

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 1**

As you set out to kill Tatewaki Kuno, Misty looks back longingly at Pallet Town. It seems like she is starting to feel attached to the town already. Good.

Green is doing a lot better today, almost bouncing right back to her normal, perky self despite all the things to come. She is a smart girl, more intelligent than you, you know, so you can guess what she imagines the future will hold if she follows you. Still, some part of you wonders why exactly she is following you down this road anyway?

**Day 1**

Traveling down Route 1 has been a relatively quiet affair-

-Except for Misty and Green, who had Seel and Bulbasaur looking more and more nervous with each second.

Misty had taken to knife fighting like a fish out of water... in water...? What? Uh, water ever. Just, whenever she draws her knife, her eyes seem to glow with a dim, blue light and even looking at her makes you shiver, slightly. Now she never walks without doing some kind of fancy knife trick that even you would need to practice before attempting.

Green on the other hand decided to grab both your white cane and your whip. While you are no master of sword fighting, she used to practice fencing, so she knows how to play with the hidden katana. And the whip...? She did not learn as fast as you, but she is picking it up faster than a normal person would, you estimate. By the end of the day, she is using it to pick up stray leaves on the ground.

You haven't had any time to train your pokemon, since you are traveling without pause. By the end of the day, your group is just south east of Viridian, close enough to see the PokeMart's lights, but far enough that you cannot be detected by Rocket Grunts.

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2**

Abradorable used her simple multi-teleport maneuver to carry you around Viridian City. Due to her slowly coming into her power, it felt like one large teleport than several hundred smaller ones. In total, it took her less than ten minutes to ferry your group to the entrance of the Viridian Forest.

You were confident on walking the path of the forest directly. There were too many dark spots and dangerous pokemon in this zone that even Rattata backed up and decided to be your group's rearguard rather than shadow.

"Ugh... I heard this forest is full of bugs..." Misty mutters next to you, shivering.

Green moves closer to Misty, with an expression of curiosity. Her eyes flutter as she ask, "what's wrong with bug pokemon?"

Misty turns around, looking betrayed. "What's wrong? What's not wrong with them, all creepy and all crawling over... Uh... And they always come in hundreds or thousands, leave people dead!"

You scratch your chin. That is a problem: if you stumble upon a beedrill hive.

Up ahead, in the center of the road, you see a curious sight. It is a rare breed of pokemon that do not exist outside of laboratories: Charmander. Its coloring looks wrong, as if its blood circulation was off... poison, perhaps. It is shivering, panting, on top of a tree stump in the middle of the road. Around it, there are several weedles trying to crawl up to it. Its tail's flame is dim, almost gone. The weedles are clicking their pincers, hungry...

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.2**

Pikachu's mouth opens as a string of tiny electrical orbs shoot out of his mouth at faster than the speed of sound-his gatling technique. Each of the weedles are fried and cooked in moments.

The charmander sighs in relief and does not move to approach you. It seems like this one is tamed and must have been trained by a human before it was stranded here in the wild.

Green stays back; she doesn't seem to like fires.

Misty runs up to it, kicking away the dead weedles quickly, "Aw, you poor thing! You poor, anti-bug thing!" She tries to hug it, but it just bats her hands away gently without hurting her.

It is hungry, at least, by the way its is drooping. The charmander is close to falling a sleep, but some kind of prerogative is keeping him from doing so. You turn to pikachu in question, and he jumps off your shoulder and starts speaking with the Charmander.

"Char, chaarr..." The charmander squeaks out mournfully.

As it turns out, he and his master were traveling down this road when a swarm of beedrills attacked. They were separated in the confusion, the master telling charmander to meet him at where they were separated before the wave of beedrills made it impossible to track down his master.

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.3**

You decide to leave Rattata with Charmander after applying a poison heal and a potion to the dragon. You also gave it your last pack of Great Pokemon Food, causing Green to call you a big softy again.

"Are you sure you want to leave Rattata there, Sato?" Green asks.

You shrug and point Abradorable to help you look for signs of the Charmander's master. Abradorable is unable to use her psychic senses to pinpoint where the person went, but she is intelligent enough to deduce exactly which direction he was taken.

You travel in that direction.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Misty whispers, as you walk deeper into the jungle.

It is a veritable jungle deep in the center of Viridian Forest. As you go deeper, you can barely see any light. However, Green suggested closing your eyes for 10 seconds and then opening them as a way to quicken the adjustment of your eyes.

You do so.

As you walk deeper, Misty steps on something soft and squishy, causing a sound similar to stepping into wet excrement. You look down and see that it is webbing. Abradorable is able to remove the webbing from her shoes, but it in front of you, even the trees are all covered webs.

You see several shapes, and you look closer. There are bodies of creatures... bodies... wrapped in webs.

"It's a trap!" Misty whispers again, as both Misty and Green press their backs to yours...

...Clicking...

...Hissing...

...Gnawing...

...Growling...

...

...Everywhere, from every direction... there is click, growling, hissing...

...Bugs, everywhere...

[PokeGear/PokeDex: Too many sources, cannot compute]

Abradorable whimpers on your shoulder, shivering.

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.4**

Abradorable instantly teleports you out, just as the first weedle shoots out of the webs at you.

Charmander and Rattata are both incredibly surprised that you are back so suddenly, but from the extra weedle corpses on the ground, you can see that Rattata is pretty happy you are here.

"W-wow... I thought I was going to die for a second there," Misty hugs Abradorable tightly. Aboradorable blushes.

Green nods, "Y-yeah... there must have been a thousand of them in that place." She also hugs Abradorable-who just happens to be on your shoulders.

Aboradorable blushes even deeper.

Abradorable is unable to express it fully, but she is able to place a few hazy seconds of what she saw into Charmander's mind. Charmander growls and you see the flame on his tail grow as he becomes angrier.

You place a hand on his head, causing him to turn to you with his bright, red eyes. He stares at you questioningly, but the rage fades from his mind. The fires on his tail glows brightly nevertheless.

Charmander agrees to go with you back to the trap pit. He wants to find his master, and the urge to destroy and crush bugs is strong within this one.

You, your Pikachu, your Abra, and your Pokedex crunched some numbers and estimate there are about 250 beedrills, 200 kakunas, and 900 weedles in the area.

** Scout Around and Make Moats**

You scout around the area, telling Green and Misty to stay put. They stick with Charmander and let out all their pokemon. They seem shaken by the trap that you had escaped earlier.

You look around, seeing webs going in every direction, in hundreds of meters. It seems like the center of this forest is one giant beehive.

As you try to approach, you are spotted by several beedrills, who immediately buzz their discovery to their comrades. They come at you, angrily, hungrily... you can see their tiny maws watering.

[Beedrill Lv. 16]  
>[Beedrill Lv. 12]<br>[Beedrill Lv. 12]  
>[Beedrill Lv. 12]<br>[Beedrill Lv. 12]  
>[Beedrill Lv. 9]<br>[Beedrill Lv. 9]  
>[Beedrill Lv. 9]<p>

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.5**

With both poliwag and pikachu out, you pull out two of the armor piercing pistols that you had looted from Team Rocket earlier.

Immediately after she is released, poliwag releases a wave of bubbles, screening and surrounding all of you.

The beedrills are unable to stop in time, due to their momentum, and crash in to the many water-filled bubbles in the air, causing them to burst and cover the bugs with liquids. Pikachu made short work of them while you killed the rest. You tried to capture one actually, but the pokeball bounced back, indicating that these beedrills-all of them-belong to someone.

_Someone is controlling all the bugs in this forest._

And it seems your gun shot has attracted the rest of the hive. The buzzing is growing louder, moving towards you.

-Poliwag +Lv. 2

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.52**

You let both poliwag and Abradorable out as pikachu gets on your shoulders. You pull out your dual pistols once more, and have Abradorable clinging to your back while poliwag and pikachu are on your shoulders.

Then, you open fire.

The sounds of gatling-electric-orbs, dual pistols, and bubble screens fill the entire forest, alerting all pokemon where you are. You know for a fact that smaller pokemon will move away. But larger, bullet proof pokemon on the other hand...

Your group's volley takes down a beedrill every 4-5 seconds, but there are so many of them coming at such a high speed that you cannot take them all down. Before the twentith kill, Abradorable teleports you out of there, just in time to dodge the supersonic pin missiles of one of the remaining beedrills.

-Poliwag +Lv. 2  
>-Abra +Lv. 2<p>

"Satoshi!" Misty shouts as you sees you. She pauses and instinctively takes a step back when she sees your smoking guns still unholstered. "W-what happened?"

You tell them that there are too many, that you will need to commence a hit and run tactic. You also ask both of the girls and the charmander to back up, away from the beedrill hives.

"Is it really that bad? I can help you know," Misty pouts, with her hands on her hips. "I'm not useless, and my Seel can more than freeze most of the trees and webs. Look at all the weedles we defeated."

Indeed, there were over 30 weedle bodies around her.

"I even caught one!" Green added perkily. She held up her pokeball as she smiles toothily at you and tries to rub herself against you. "And you know, if we need to, we could also have my Digletts Fred and George go and collapse their whole hive! Well, I dunno if that'll work. Last time we dug a hole that big they were pretty tired..."

Misty interrupts. "So what's the plan, Satoshi?"

Diglett +Lv. 1  
>Diglett +Lv. 1<br>Seel +Lv. 1  
>Staryu +Lv. 1<br>Charmander +Lv. 1 (Lv. 12)

Green Caught:  
>Weedle Lv. 9<p>

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.6**

Poliwag moves to Misty, ready to support her pokemon. Her Shellder had recently learned the move Icy Wind from her Seel. With Staryu and Poliwag giving water support they will try to make waves on the main wave.

You can hear the buzzing far away now. The bees are angry, but have no direction. They are mad, mad, mad; even the weedles are becoming more wild with bloodthirst.

Pikachu and Charmander decide to move off to the side, picking off targets from a far, on your command.

There must be something directing them, because you can hear the buzzing closing in on you now.

Green took this opportunity to let her Digletts out with her Bulbasaur. Weedle came out too, but after an attempt at stinging Green, she balled it and kept it for later use. You were just a second away from pinning the shit to a tree with a throwing knife too.

The buzzing is growing louder. You can hear the clicking of teeth, the chattering of their maws, dripping, waiting, hoping to tear at your flesh, to drink your blood from your marrow.

Abradorable whined and tugs on your pants, afraid. You pat her gently as you normally do on her head. She calms down greatly and sticks with you, along with Rattata.

Green gulps nervously, "Are you sure about this, Sato?"

You nod.

Green sighs, pulling out the white cane Katana and her Rocket Grunt Whip. Misty does the same with her knife and you unholster your pistols.

"Incoming!" Misty's shrill, fearful shout is drowned by the buzzing, surrounding you from all sides.

"Steady..." You see no targets. They are both out of your range and circling you, trying to bait you to move first.

"Steady..." Weedles are crawling inward, but to waste your first volley on them would be a shame.

"Steady..." The beedrills are still not moving in...

Then-

-From all sides, they charged, buzzing in blind rage-

"-FIRE!"

In a semi-circle to your front, and from where the majority of the beedrills are coming from, Poliwag and Staryu let loose bubble screens immediately. Their moves are tagged from behind by a burst of powerful Icy Wind from both Shellder and Seel, causing the bubbles to burst and shatter into dozens of shards of ice, flying everywhere. The continued attack on that front caused all the beedrills (a good 50-75) to either pause or get caught in the storm of ice. Many of them were able to break free of the frost, but the wave of ice and water kept coming, keeping the bugs down.

On your side, pikachu was going so fast, he was turning that part of the forest into molt slag and burning cinders. However, he is barely powerful enough in his shocks to keep one Beedrill down as another replaces it. The constant pouring in of weedles at this point keeps him from focusing on the beedrills.

Charmander was faring little better, little worse than Pikachu. His bursts of ember are enough to push Beedrills back, but just as he pushes one back, another replaces it. The incoming weedles that both crawl to him and drop down at him from above cause him to pause in his bursts of fire and engage in melee.

Some of the Charmander's attacks have started a small fire...

Just before Charmander and Pikachu could be overrun, Digletts popped out of the ground, causing fissures in the ground-a moat of sorts that caused all the weedles to pause. Charmander took this opportunity to spit a wild burst of flame into the moat, causing everything-the dead leaves, wild grass, bushes-within to burst into fire.

However, because he did not pay attention, Charmander was caught by one of the Beedrill's stingers. Before he could retaliate, more Beedrills swarmed him, causing him to fall. You rush forward with Bulbasaur, slashing and shooting wildly, trying to get the Beedrills off. But somewhere along the line, you ran out of ammunition in that clip, and Bulbasaur was pushed back in order to help a struggling Green.

Misty was getting trouble too, the water pokemon all being very tired by now, having to keep up a continued burst. Only Pikachu was fine, but even he was getting overwhelmed slowly. Even Pikachu had to back up, as nearly twenty Beedrills swarmed at him-

-Just as hope seemed dim, the Beedrills stopped attacking lethally, and resorted to holding your pokemon down as weedles moved in in droves as they shot their webs all over you. Your entire team probably killed over 200 Beedrills and over 400 Weedles in that time.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Clap, clap, clap.

"Verily, that was a nice stand. But you shall fall now, peasants." A voice came through the woods. It was a strange voice, because it sounded more like a bug than a man's voice. There was weird croaking at the back of the throat that caused the voice to sound like a motor running. "I... am the Shooting Star of Swordfighting, the mighty Samurai of the Kuno House: Tatewaki!" A man dressed in full Japanese medieval body armor walked into the clearing.

You have enough movement in your wrist to reach your belt, but all your other pokemon are tied up. Only Abradorable and Mr. Fish are in their pokeballs, safe as for now.

"D-d-d-do you mongrels have any last words?" The man asked as he leveled his sword at you. You can see a gigantic Pinser and a matured Vespiqueen behind him.

Experience Gained So Far:  
>-Shellder +Lv. 3<br>-Seel +Lv. 2  
>-Staryu +Lv. 2<br>-Poliwag +Lv. 3  
>-Pikachu +Lv. 3<br>-Charmander +Lv. 3  
>-Diglett +Lv. 2<br>-Diglett +Lv. 2  
>-Bulbasaur +Lv. 3<br>-Rattata +Lv. 1  
>-Abradorable +Lv. 4<p>

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.7**

Having no way of telling just how powerful the Vespiqueen or the humongous Pinser are, you have but one plan left. In the loudest voice you can manage, you taunt the Samurai and call him out to a duel.

"Ha! To duel a-a-a-a l-l-l-l-lord and k-k-k-k-k-king as myself, you overstep your bounds! I shall have your h-h-h-h-head!" He shouts, pointing his sword to the sky.

Knowing that you have no other options, you reach for both Mr. Fish and Abradorable's pokeballs.

"Wait, why are you doing this?" Misty asks desperately.

"W-w-w-why? To please my q-q-q-q-queen, of course, fools!" He moves over and slaps Misty harshly. You see specks of blood dripping from Misty's lips as she turns her face away from you, ashamed.

His queen? The only 'queen' you can see is his Vespiqueen!

For some reason, a fire lights within you. It is a powerful light of rage that calls for you to smash this 'Samurai's' face into bits as you grind his bones to dust. It calls, it roars... it... The fire, that small ember, within your heart grows as anger grows-from seeing Misty's shamed form, shivering and shaking as a drop of tears fall down her cheeks.

In that moment, both Abradorable and Mr. Fish appears over you, and in that moment, before Abradorable could grasp onto Mr. Fish, she charges. The powerful Red Gyaradoes roars as it leaps upon Kuno, tearing and smashing him into pulp.

The Beedrills and Weedles all buzz and hiss in anger, but it is too late. Abradorable has shredded all the webbing around you with her telekinesis. Pikachu roars triumphant as Mr. Fish, influenced by your rage, joins in and charges at the Vespiqueen-

-Only for the Pinser to block her, holding her down with only two arms.

Something rumbles in the forest.

[Vespiqueen Lv. 39]  
>[Pinser Lv. 35]<p>

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.8**

"Pikachu," you whisper as your ears pound with the sounds of war. Your heart beats quicken as adrenaline pumps. "Charge Thunder on Vespiqueen. Misty, Green keep us safe."

Mr. Fish thrashes, but to no avail against Pinser's powerful limbs and even more powerful armor. The chitinous plating of the gigantic bug pokemon prevents even Mr. Fish's most powerful bites from denting it.

Suddenly, Abradorable teleports the contents of the only repel in your bags right onto Vespiqueen-a show of how far her power has grown in this last hour. She was not even near the can. Your ears pound harder, the drums of war approach.

The Vespiqueen hisses and buzzes wildly, its many eyes blinded by the acidic repel's alchemical liquids. It moves in random patterns, the pain clouding its mind. All the Beedrills suddenly stop their attacks, confused.

In this confusion, Mr. Fish **roars**.

...And it is answered.

Just as the Beedrills and Weedles all flee from Mr. Fish's roar, the beating you hear smashes through the trees. You look up, tiredly, seeing a blue form. A _blue_form?

It roars and, in your moment of shock, it tosses Mr. Fish aside, a few dozen feet into the air before she lands on and through multiple trees. It then turns to the Pinser and punches so hard even the Pinser is pushed back a meter.

Then it roars, challenging any who dares, before it spits a glob of purple acid that burns right through Vespiqueen. It pounds its chest, before roaring so loudly, the trees all tremble. Its attention is on Pinser for now...

[Pokedex: Shiny Nidoking Lv. 43]

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 2.9**

You turn to Misty and Green, and tell them harshly to start applying potions to all their pokemon. You apply the antitodes you have on you to Charmander, Diglett and Bulbasaur.

By this time, everyone is able to stand on their two feet and not collapse. You think some Weedles or Beedrills might have scratched you a few times earlier, causing you to see slightly blurry, but it does not seem like a problem. So you command the Digletts to soften up the earth between you and the Nidoking, and for the water and ice pokemon to get ready to stop the Nidoking.

Misty mutters behind you, something about how any normal pokemon would have fled, even if it were trained by a trainer and something about you not being natural. But she obeys you and gets out her knife again, still slick with Weedle blood.

Bulbasaur looks ready to rumble too, but you tell it to back up. In the end, it's up to you and Mr. Fish. It sighs but understands, returning to where Green is, looking for other opponents hiding in the trees.

Abradorable and Poliwag both stand up behind you too. Time is short.

With a mighty roar, the Nidoking grabs both of the Pinser's main arms, causing the bug pokemon much panic. But that was already too late, because the Nidoking, with a victorious battleshout, kicked a leg forward and ripped the Pinser's arms off.

Then it proceeded to beat the Pinser with its arms as the bug pokemon flailed wildly and screeched in pain. Every time the bug tried to use its most powerful technique, the Nidoking was more than fast enough to dodge. In the last attempt, Nidoking grabbed the Vespiqueen's body and flung it into the awaiting pincers of the Pinser, causing the Vespiqueen to be shredded into two.

The Pinser shakes as it feels the Vespiqueen's bodily liquids run down its face, shocked. That shock was enough for Nidoking to take advantage of and drill its horn straight through the Pinser, causing its heart to explode and for it to call as its exoskeleton rips to pieces and it is pulverized.

The Nidoking turns towards you, roaring. You take a shot at him in the head, but all the armor-piercing round does is bounce off of the Nidoking's face, causing it to become angrier. There is a fresh scar on its face now, one that runs across its right eye, thanks to your bullet. Even if it wasn't enough to take its eye, it was enough to cause the Nidoking to get into a blind rage-

-charging straight at you.

Immediately, Mr. Fish unleashes a torrent of water, while Seel and Shellder use Icy Wind to both slow the Nidoking and to cause spikes of ice to rise from the ground. It proved ineffective as the Nidoking charged right through the defensive. It kept coming as even when the Digletts caused a miniature earthquake behind its feet, the Nidoking still charged.

In a single sweep of its arm, Mr. Fish is tossed aside. Another sweep misses Pikachu, but Pikachu's electric attacks do not even cause Nidoking to pause. It just ignores the little critter.

You draw your machete and your gun. But before the Nidoking reaches you completely, Charmander jumps in the path and lets loose a powerful torrent of fire-the last of its flames-before Nidoking brushes him too aside.

Then, even as ten vinewhips wrapped around him and Green wrapped her whip around its neck, Nidoking merely shrugged, throwing them off.

All that left was...

"Hypnosis!"

Both Abradorable and Poliwag let loose their full psychic power. It was not enough, but it was enough to slow the Nidoking, causing it to shake its head violently to get rid of its sleepy impulses. Before it could however, Digletts both sink its feet into the ground, forcing it in place. And before it could do anything about that, ice grew and wrapped around its legs and torso, keeping it from moving freely.

It roars in rage, but water shoots from all directions, dosing it. And then, Pikachu charges up its head, slamming it with a Volt Tackle followed by a Thunder Wave, dizzying its mind. Just enough for Poliwag and Abradorable to let loose a second wave of psychic power, causing the Nidoking to finally droop its head. Then you tossed your GreatBall.

_Ding!_

Mr. Fish +Lv. 3  
>Abradorable +Lv. 1<p>

**Op. Mission 2! Pt. 3**

You grasp the shaking pokeball in your hand. The monstrosity within struggles to get loose, but it is already imprinted with you down to its DNA. Still, it struggles, trying to break free. You will need to confront it alone to gain its trust and loyalty. But that time will come later.

For now, you ball all your pokemon except for Pikachu and Abradorable.

"Wha-tha-oh!" Green hops forward, "Sato! That... wow." She stands, staring dazedly at the ball in your hand.

"Trust me," Misty groans as she tries to walk to you. "You'll get used to Sato doing insane things like that soon enough."

"B-b-but! That was a _Nidoking_! They are... I... I can count the people who have one in Kanto with my two hands!" Green gasps.

"Yeah," Misty nods, "And now you need another finger to count Sato."

Green takes off her hat, using it to fan herself. You can see that her hair had stuck to her skin due to her sweat. "I still can't believe that just happened. _What_happened?"

You explain to the girls that the man, Kuno, was probably being controlled by his Vespiqueen. Tragic, really.

"That makes sense," Misty nods in agreement as she plops down on a tree trunk, too tired to stand. The entire field was littered with corpses of weedles and beedrills, so even finding a spot like that was pretty amazing. "Vespiqueens do have the tendency to fall in love with their trainers and try to make them their kings..." She trails off, shivering at the thought.

Green frowns at you, "Sato... you have... like, 10 stings from Beedrills still stuck in you. Aren't you, you know? Supposed to be dead?"

You shrug and pull the stingers out.

"Gah!" Green cries as she leaps across to you, while trying to not land on any corpses, "Now you're bleeding! Hold on, I'll patch you up!"

Misty adds as she stands back up with the help of her Staryu, the only pokemon she has out, "Green, you've got a bunch of cuts on you too. Did you play too close to the weedles?"

"Hey! That's not funny! Bulba almost died from that," Green huffed. Her two Digletts were the only pokemon she has out too.

It took some time, but your group has patched up.

[PokeMediKit: -15]

After you are patched up enough that once the adrenaline leaves, you don't fall down and die, you begin to loot the corpses with the help of Abradorable and Pikachu. It turns out that other than that soddy piece of armor and the Muramasa Sword, Kuno has nothing else valuable on him. However, you do find a necklace with a small locket attached. Inside it was a very worn picture of a very young Kuno and a very young Doctor Akagi. By the looks of it, they are at least 10 years younger in that picture. You take it just in case. The necklace and locket look like they are made of gold.

[Muramasa Sword (x1)]  
>[Kuno's Momento (x1)]<p>

After about thirty minutes of slashing open various cocoons to the sight of skeletons with only preserved skin on top, much to Misty and Green's dismay, you seem to have found the Charmander's trainer. His body was still fresh, with only most of its blood drained from his body, still preserved enough for Charmander to gasp and cry at.

As Charmander knelt before his master, whimpering softly, you shift through the trainer's items. There are 2 antidotes, 2 potions, and 3 empty pokeballs here. He also has his HANDY505 Pokedex, which was registered to him. Behind you, Green gasps as she saw the picture ID in the Pokedex.

"T-that! I know that guy! He's the one who got the... oh! Charmander is from Professor Oak's lab! Oh... oh god..." Green's eyes widen in shock. Misty goes to her quickly and catches her before Green falls to the ground, her knees unable to support her. "Sato..." She looks at you with teary eyes, "Hug me?"

[Missing Charmander Trainer's Pokedex]

After you had comforted Green, you shift through the goods within the nest. Most of the items belonged to beginning trainers, so there was not much to get. However, you found 9 pokeballs, 10 potions, 7 antidotes, which you split between the group.

After using one of your new pokeballs to ball Charmander, Abradorable teleports you back to Pallet Town.

[+12 Pokeball]  
>[+12 Potion]<br>[+9 Antidote]  
>[+Pokedex]<br>[+Sword]  
>[+Necklace Momento]<p>

[Caught: Charmander Lv. 14]

**Returning Heroes! Pt. 1 **

You are in Pallet Town now. It has been a turbulent two days since you started that quest for the Muramasa sword that Doctor Akagi requested. As you walked into the town limits, the Machoke guards look at you with fearful eyes. It seems they can sense what is in your pokeball.

It is the late afternoon already, but the girls tell you that they don't want to go to Professor Oak's lab again. Instead, they will be going home and cleaning themselves off. Misty was adamant on this idea.

So you are going into the lab alone, seeing Doctor Akagi sitting at her console, waiting for you expectantly. "You're back," she says, "as I expected. Good. I knew I could count on you, Agent Red."

You tell her about how Samurai Kuno had been controlled by the Vespiqueen, but she stops you.

"I... Kuno has always loved his bugs more than anything else," she says with a sigh. "I was younger then... But enough of that. Did you put him out of his misery?"

You nod.

"Well, good," Akagi nods back at you. "I should thank you for doing me this favor. He... he hasn't been himself for a long time. Did you find anything on his person?"

You hand her the sword and the locket.

Doctor Akagi brushes a hand against her eyes. "No, I'm not crying now. I'm over him, I've been over him for a long time. I... I-I just have some dust in my eyes, that's all."

You move to help her, but she waves you off.

She puts both the sword and the necklace away. "Professor Oak will be very glad to have this sword. It is said to have been forged from the metal from a star. I can see that it is not made from any metals or alloys known to me, but then I'm not a metallurgist. If it comes out to be anything useful, I'll be sure to tell you about it, alright?" She winks at you and leads you into the lab. "Alright, since baby pokemon usually imprint themselves to the first face they see, and since this is a ghost type pokemon, I'll let it hatch the moment you are in the breeding room alone."

You are brought in to a room with a single tube filled with green liquids. There are machinery everywhere. The lights turn dim and Doctor Akagi stands at the doorway. "Alright, good luck. If something bad happens... well, the panic button is right there." She points to a large red button.

With that, she leaves, and the glowing green liquids inside the tank slowly filters away, leaving only an egg. Then, the machine hisses and the glass-like container opens down the middle, just as the egg starts shaking.

After a moment, the egg stops, and several pores on the top let loose multiple wisps of smoke. A foot above the egg, the smoke gathers and twirls, forming a small ball. It grows and grows, until the center is darker than black and purple gases surround it like a negative aura. Then, two slanted eyes open, slowly, and stare at you with wide, blue eyes.

"Gaah!" The Gastly cries joyously, floating up to to your face and licking your nose. "Gaah, gaah." She smiles at you, floating around you. It takes a moment to spin around your head before settling on top of your cap, nuzzling against your head.

You pick up its egg, and feel something inside it. It is heavy, and as you shake the egg lightly, whatever is inside seems to slush around and shake with you. You deduce that there is a dead body inside the egg.

At that moment, Doctor Akagi opens the door, which slides open with a metallic hiss. "Well, I'll be damned. A friendly ghost. I never thought to see the day where one is so... Joyful, all the time. Well, you are one lucky agent... Satoshi."

She shoos you out of the lab afterwards, "You have no other business here, so you can scram, go play with your girls or something! I still got work to do."

You take Gastly and Abradorable out of Pallet Town, teleporting all the way to the cliff that overlooked the Diglett's Tunnel. Here, you introduce Abradorable to your new Gastly.

Both seem happy to meet each other, but otherwise are confused why you are letting them meet here of all places.

You smile gently down at Abradorable and ask if she will be willing to allow Gastly to permanently possess her. Abradorable lets out a fearful warble, but then nods to you. She projects an emotion of determination to you through her mind to yours. She wants to do this.

You nod and look to Gastly, who had begun trying to like her forehead while you were talking with Abradorable. Gastly looks back at you instantly and nods, without even you asking the question. She moves next to Abradorable and starts spinning around the little psychic pokemon's head, faster and faster.

Soon, she was spinning so fast that all you can see is a black and purple blur. Abradorable had begun to glow with psychic energy, her entire body the same purple aura as Gastly. Then, Gastly's gaseous form really turned into a miniature cloud of purple poison, before going into Abradorable through all of her pores.

In that instant, Abradorable panicked, causing a wild squeal. Her coloration changed, a sign of poison filling her body, destroying her cells. Her arms flailed, slowly as the poison broke down her nerves and her muscle tissue.

You inject her with antidote, but that only slows down the process adding some tolerance to the poison. Still Gastly tried to merge with Abradorable completely-now Abradorable's panicked squeals are echoed by a voice similar to Gastly's!

Something hot burns in your chest pocket: the Rainbow Feather. It shoots out of your pocket and floats in the air before you, between you and Abradorable. Its golden light floats in the air, and shrouds Abradorable, blinding you. After what seemed like an eternity, the light fades and you can see the final result.

The Rainbow Feather falls to the ground, now once more just a feather. You pocket it.

Abradorable looks the same, except there were many tiny black tattoos all over her body, on her arms, legs and face. Her body seems to be constantly emitting an aura of purple, poisonous yet... cold. It was as if she is constantly absorbing the heat from her surroundings.

Her eyes open, the eyes of a Gastly, not an Abra, and she smiles at you. There is an echo in her voice, one that seems... _cosmic_... as she grins at you and speaks directly into your mind.

'_Good evening, Father._' She giggles into your mind, as a thousand smaller, fading voices all scream the same as she speaks. '_I feel just, quite refreshed, thank you._' She levitates off the ground, floating to you, and wraps her arms around your neck in a hug. You feel the utter devotion, love, and loyalty of her emotions crashing into your mind like waves. It nearly overwhelms your mind, but only nearly.

She smiles at you, not with the mischievous grin of a Gastly, nor with the modest twitch of an Abra. It was a warm, calm smile. She was a sea of psychic power to herself.

Permanent Abra+Gastly Fusion Captured, Lv. 15. Choose new nickname?

_Alma._


	4. Information for Part 2

**ALL IS RED**

**[Additional Information Codex]**

**Pokemon Training**

_Your own training, and the many lectures by the prestigious Professor Oak, tells you that there no only one correct way to train pokemon. Each trainer is different, and so is each pokemon. However, you do know that constant battling will not be enough to actually train your pokemon. No battling at all would not help either._

The best example of a good trainer is Blue. When he realized that his pokemon are weak against ranged attacks that hinder them, he immediately set out to train them in the art of dodging and evasion. While his training methods are able to net out results in record time, you probably are unable to do this. You know this too-that your training has taught you, that you need to spend many long hours teaching different fighting tactics to your pokemon, or else.

Thus far, you have been lucky because of your own innate ability that got your pokemon to do what you wanted them to do, but at higher levels, if you do not train them properly you will not be so lucky.

**Approval Badges**

Around 200 years ago, Gym Leaders decided to implement a series of 'approval badges' made of minerals that could only be found in their specific regions as to show that any trainer they approved of had evidence of said approval. These minerals usually had a calming effect, so that when used in tandem, they will calm stronger pokemon when possessed by a single trainer. Those types of special approval badges are now usually found only in museums or in family heirlooms.

Today, Gym Leaders use cheaper, mass produced badge designs similar to their original badge signs with electronic chips that work together to emulate the effect of the now extremely rare minerals from each region. When placed within one-inch distance of each other, these badges will radiate a calming aura around the trainer specifically targeting the pokemon tagged by his pokeballs. While not as effective as the original minerals used in, this method is both cheaper and easier for wide spread use.

The most famous story of a pokemon trainer who collected 12 approval badges and then went on to become that nation's Champion is a wide spread one. It is the story of a young nameless boy of immense personal will and mental strength who went on to conquer the 12 Gyms of the region, completing dangerous and nigh-impossible tasks even for today. It is a story that ended in tragedy and many retellings of the story lean towards calling it 'The Tragedy of Hercules'. After this trainer's death, the international leagues council decided to remove the rules for a Gym's tasks and replaced it with a single battle. Now, pokemon trainers no longer have to work tireless hours, in many months, in impossible labors to prove themselves. All they have to do is defeat a set team that is decided by the regional league, commanded by the Gym Leader, to earn their badges.

It is said that the original designs of each badge also has some mythical significance, but that is lost in history. Perhaps Professor Oak has more information on this.

Minerals used in each badge are now considered legendary minerals, as they can no longer be found in nature. All artificial attempts to reproduce or recreate these minerals have failed. Folklore points to that the legendary pokemon of each region were the ones who had a hand in creating these minerals-that only one pure of heart could coerce the powerful, mythical pokemon into recreating such minerals. This is also what led to many smaller, more ignorant villages to begin rites and rituals of virgin or infant sacrifice. However, all attempts thus far to appeal to the legendary pokemon have failed, if they even exist, and all myths surrounding such rituals have been debunked by the scientific society. Professor Oak may have more information on this.

**Viridian City**  
><em>Population: Approx. 340,000<em>  
>(Medium Sized City)<p>

GDP: 27,000,000,000 Poke  
>GDP per capita: 375,000 Poke<br>Exports: 22.1%  
>Imports: 13.4%<br>Unemployment: 19.8%

Main Imports: Food Crops, High Technology Machinery, Vehicles  
>Main Exports: Diamonds, Rare Earths, Crude Oil, Evolutionary Stones<p>

Number of Pokemon Centers: 1  
>Number of League Sponsored PokeMarts: 1<br>Number of Gym Buildings: 1  
>Number of Elementary Schools: 3<br>Number of Secondary Schools: 4  
>Number of Academies: 1<br>Number of Colleges: 1  
>Number of Police Stations: 1<br>Number of Fire Stations: 4  
>Number of Hospitals: 4<p>

Crime Rate: 2.6%  
>Number of Thefts Reported this year: 3218<br>Number of Missing People Cases this year: 118  
>Number of Fire Cases this year: 14<br>Number of Murders this year: 1

This city specializes on Ground-Type pokemon and has been thus for the last 350 years. Its current Gym leader, Giovanni, is missing in action. It is surrounded by forests on all areas and is one of the two ways to enter this Nation's Victory Road. It is what stands on the land-attached end of the peninsula that ends with Pallet Town.

This city has four major districts: Pokemon District, Commercial District, Residency District, and Rural District. These districts are north east, south east, south west, and north west respectively. At the center of the city is the Viridian Gym and the Pokemon Center. The PokeMart is located in the Commercial District.

People are currently migrating to Viridian City.

Problems: prostitution, child kidnapping/slavery, prevalent petty theft, drug and mineral trafficking. Due to the high income level of this town which in turn is caused by the high concentration of diamond and crude oil under the city and in the Victory Road (within city limits), prostitution and drug problems have become more common in the last 50 years. Viridian Police tries to combat this issue, however it is low on man power and is constantly hindered by the Rocket Society or by the Gym's higher ranking trainers. Murder is surprisingly at an all time low, and has been below 0.1% per year for the last 20 years, since Gym Leader Giovanni took the reins. Kidnapping is an issue that Giovanni wants to eliminate, but still occurs in this city.

This city is considered to be a moderate sized city with high levels of income.

* * *

><p><strong>[Pokemon]<strong>  
>[Red's Team]<br>-Red's Poliwag (Lv. 16) (Maximized IV)  
>-Red's Pikachu (Lv. 16) (Over-maximized IV) (Holding <strong>Special Light Ball<strong>)  
>-Rattata (Lv. 10)<br>-Mr. Fish (Lv. 26)  
>-Alma (Lv. 15) (Maximized IV)<br>-Tex (Lv. 43)  
>-Charmander (Lv. 14)<p>

[Deposited Pokemon]  
>-Pigeon (Pidgey) (Lv. 10)<p>

[Misty(Hanada Kasumi)'s Team]  
>-Staryu (Lv. 21)<br>-Seel (Lv. 20)  
>-Shellder (Lv. 15)<p>

[Green(Leaf)'s Team]  
>-Bulbasaur (Lv. 12)<br>-Weedle (Lv. 9)  
>-Diglett (Lv. 16)<br>-Diglett (Lv. 18)

* * *

><p><strong>[Current Inventory]<strong>  
>[Key Items]<br>-Reinforced Backpack  
>-Sentimental Pokemon League Cap [Equipped]<br>-PokeGear [Equipped]  
>-Dogtag inscribed "S. Pilgrim, Viridian PKMN Academy"<br>-PokeMediKit (20/20)  
><strong>-Rainbow Wing Feather<strong>  
>-Application to Join Team Rocket (x2)<br>-Set of Rocket Grunt clothes (x1)  
>-Rocket Grunt PokeGear Information(x1)<br>**-Pokedex (505)**  
>-Rocket Associate's Data-pad<p>

[Money]  
>-18235 Poke<p>

[Trainer Gear]  
>-Empty PokeBalls (x41)<br>-Potion (x8)  
>-Universal Poison Heal (x5)<br>-Experience Share (x1)  
>-100ft of Rope (x1)<br>-Great Pokemon Food (x1)  
>-Nuggets (x4) (2 lb. molten gold) (Equiv. 10,000 Poke each)<br>-Various ruined Rocket Gear (x9) (Equiv. 5,000 Poke each to Anti-Rocket organizations)  
>-Machoke Belt (x1)<br>-Empty GreatBalls (x0)  
>-Universal Bug Repellent (x0)<p>

[Misc Items]  
>-Reinforced Trainer Clothing (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Stunguns (x2) [Equipped]  
>-Silenced Pistol (910 Ammunition) (x1) (Equipped)  
>-Extra Pistol Clips (x10)<br>-Extra Rocket Grunt High Caliber Clips (x12)  
>-Machete (x1) [Equipped]<br>-Throwing Knife (x3) (Equipped)  
>-Untraceable Cellphone (x1)<br>-Rocket Grunt High Calibur Pistol (x2)

[Misty's Items]  
>-Misty Basic Survival Armor (Equipped)<br>-Combat Knife (x1) (Equipped)  
>-Universal Poison Heal (x3)<br>-GreatBall (x2)  
>-PokeBall (x4)<br>-Potion (x6)  
>-8000 Poke<p>

[Green's Items]  
>-Awesome White Hat (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Rocket Grunt Bullwhip (x1) (Equipped)  
>-Hidden Katana in Jeweled White Cane (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Universal Poison Heal (x3)  
>-Rocket Grunt Taser (x1)<br>-PokeBall (x7)  
>-GreatBall (x2)<br>-Potion (x6)  
>-8000 Poke<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Pokemon You Own<strong>

Note: Individual Values (IV's) range from 1 to 31 on all normal pokemon. With 1 being the weakness of its kind and 31 being the strongest of its kind. Going above 31 equates to being stronger than any other of its kind.

**MR. FISH**  
><em>Gyarados Rex<em>

Weight: 2072.5 lbs (940 kg)  
>Length: 106'8" (32.5 meters)<br>Height: 21'4" (6.5 meters)  
>Gender: Female<br>Level: 26

_Found and caught by your bare hands on Route 1, this powerful, shiny Red Gyarados is a majestic sight to behold. She fears no enemies, as her impossibly hard shell allows her to endure punishment beyond even what a modern tank can withstand. She has the power of serpents, allowing her to practically plow through almost any enemy without need for finesse. You may have to teach her about that. Her unique coloration allows her allows her to stand out, but it seems to give no visible bonuses. She seems more intelligent than a normal Gyarados. She is also extremely afraid of you for some reason._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 33<br>Attack: 33  
>Defense: 29<br>Sp. Atk.: 31  
>Sp. Def.: 29<br>Speed: 32  
>Health: 30<p>

Moves Known:  
>-Thrash<br>-Rage  
>-Bite<br>-Splash  
>-Tackle<br>-Flail  
>-Tail Whip<br>_-Tail Smash (Tail Whip that does damage)_  
>-Roar<br>_-Spit (1/5 powered Water Gun)_

**PIKACHU**  
><em>Pika Pika Pi Chuchu<em>

Weight: 13.2 lbs (6 kg)  
>Height: 1'4" (0.4 meters)<br>Gender: Male  
>Level: 16<p>

_You received this pikachu from Professor Oak. While the limit on a normal pokemon's individual values, as Professor Oak measures them, is 30, this anomaly was the result of an experiment to push pokemon beyond their limits. All his individual values are over 40 points, a frightening thing to behold. With the special, engineered __**Light Ball**__ that Professor Oak had created just for this creature, it is possibly the most powerful pikachu in the world, without a doubt. His personality matches your and you seem to have a strange affinity for him, as if he was created just for you. Or you were created just it. Strange. At the very least, you seem to be able to understand what it is thinking most of the time, and it you._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 42<br>Attack: 41  
>Defense: 39<br>Sp. Atk.: 51  
>Sp. Def.: 39<br>Speed: 44  
>Health: 34<p>

Moves Known:  
>Volt Tackle<br>Tackle  
>Growl<br>Tail Whip  
>Thundershock<br>Quick Attack  
>Thunder Wave<br>_Thunder Gatling (1/10 powered Thundershocks at 100/minute)_  
><em>Thunder Armor (125 powered Volt Tackle sustained)_

**POLIWAG**  
><em>Bufonidae Poliwag<em>

Weight: 27.3 lbs (12.4 kg)  
>Height: 2'0" (0.6 meters)<br>Gender: Female  
>Level: 16<p>

_You were friends with this poliwag since you were five years old. Professor Oak gave it to you as a present, the first of a few. It is a maximized pokemon from one of Oak's earlier experiments, so it is in peak condition as of physical ability. All it depends on is how you train it for it to be come even more power. It has been your faithful companion for many years through many hardships. It will continue to follow you as you walk the path that leads to your rise in power..._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 28<br>Attack: 29  
>Defense: 32<br>Sp. Atk.: 32  
>Sp. Def.: 30<br>Speed: 28  
>Health: 33<p>

Moves Known:  
>Water Sport<br>Tail Wag  
>Tackle<br>Bubble  
>Hypnosis<br>Water Gun

**ALMA**  
><em>Very Cute Abra and Gastly Fusion<em>

Weight: 37.68 lbs (17.1 kg)  
>Height: 2'04" (0.7 meters)<br>Gender: Female  
>Level: 15<p>

_A very modest, little Abra, who was born because you requested it. It is still very young and seems to be learning about the world from your eyes. It will judge the world through your eyes as well. Because it is a newborn, it is still smaller and lighter than a normal Abra. It is very cute. You fused it permanently using the aid of the power of the Ho-Oh Feather with a new born Gastly. Now it is a miniature Cosmic Horror who seems to love you greatly. She is immune to physical attacks._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 32<br>Attack: 29  
>Defense: 29<br>Sp. Atk.: 48  
>Sp. Def.: 44<br>Speed: 35  
>Health: 31<p>

Moves Known:  
>Teleport<br>Telekinesis  
>Hypnosis<br>Lick  
>Spite<br>Mean Look  
>Curse<br>Night Shade  
><em>Mind Deconstruction (Psychically Powered Night Shade)<em>

**TEX**  
><em>Nido Tyrannus Rex<em>

Weight: 10894.0 lbs (4960.0 Kg)  
>Height: 18'04"(5.6 Meters)<br>Gender: Male  
>Level: 43<p>

_It used to be the king of Viridian Forest. Now it serves you. It is four times as large as the average Nidoking. Very powerful physically. This special variation's shell is three times as thick as the normal Nidoking, and twice as dense and twice as hard. It is a practical super-tank. It has just one visible mark on it's armor: the scar you gave it across it's right eye when trying to capture him._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 31<br>Attack: 59  
>Defense: 61<br>Sp. Atk.: 9  
>Sp. Def.: 31<br>Speed: 21  
>Health: 31<p>

Moves Known:  
>Chip Away<br>Double Kick  
>Earthquake<br>Earth Power  
>Flatter<br>Focus Energy  
>Helping Hand<br>Mega Punch  
>Mega Kick<br>Peck  
>Poison Sting<br>Poison Spikes  
>Poison Jab<br>Roar  
>Sludge Bomb<br>Thrash  
>Tail Whip<br>Toxic


	5. Part 3

**ALL IS RED**

**Returning Heroes! Pt. 2**

You ask her if she wants the Feather. She shakes her head at you, '_No, Father, it belongs to you._'

She brings you home, you are still unsure of what to call her. She looks up at you and shrugs, '_Whatever you like, Father._' And then she adds, '_C-can... can I call you... Papa, Father?_' Her cheeks seem to be turning red-hued purple as she said so.

You nod and she shrieks with joy, hopping onto your shoulders and clinging onto your back. She seems to have lost all weight, due to her ghost properties combined with her power to effortlessly float in the air.

You are at home now, where Delia, Green, and Misty are setting up for dinner. It looks like Daisy has taken time to visit too, because she is helping in the kitchen with Pikachu trying to look up her skirt.

"Oh, Sato, you're back!" Green jumps on you, forgetting about setting plates altogether. "Wow, you look like you haven't slept at all! I was just telling Daisy about how we stopped that evil trainer in Viridian Forest from preying on trainers... Did you paint on Abradorable?" She looks up and down Abradorable curiously.

'_No, big sis! Papa just took me for a ride!_'

"Oh, if that's all, then I guess that's fine." Green nods to herself as she gets off of you and finishes setting the plates. "Daisy! Sato-kun is back~!"

"Oh my!" Daisy rushes out of the kitchen. "Sato, you look like you haven't slept in days! And uh, go take a shower!"

You realize your cloths still have the grime of the blood of the many dead Beedrills you slayed. You nod to Daisy in agreement and head upstairs, but Delia interrupts you. "Dear, your pokemon are probably tired too, here I'll have them healed."

She takes your Pokeballs and picks the minor Cosmic Entity on your back up and tickles her. "Look at you, you need a bath too! Come on, you can use my bathroom, you cutie~!" She turns to you and adds, "I like the new tattoos on Abra, but that's a rather harsh thing to inflict on a baby pokemon, don't you know? Oh, where did I go wrong raising you?" She sighs jokingly before taking Abra and the rest of your pokemon up too.

After you had cleaned up, dinner had been a lively affair, with Green narrating your last adventure with special sound effects provided by Pikachu. After every line Green said, Pikachu would add, "Pika-pika chu!"

Daisy mentions that your Abra seems to love you greatly and that it was wonderful that you are having such fun. However, she will not be joining you because she needs to take good care of her Grandfather. "He works way too hard for his age! Really, he needs to get more sleep!" She had said with a huff.

After resting for the night and waking up next morning, you are starting to feel the stings and damage you had taken the previous day. Delia tells you to rest for the rest of the day, and she also added some powerful creams onto your wounds. She says it will be good to go by tomorrow, but not enough to allow you to keep fighting until the day after.

'_Papa?_' Your cosmic horror tugs on the hem of your shirt, '_I can hear your mind now. I can hear every one's minds, in the house!_' She says proudly. '_I can't hear them inside the Laboratory though, because something is blocking me. But I can block them too! For you and me!_' She giggles and floats up to your neck and hugs.

You pat her gently, causing her to purr.

'_Papa, I'm sorry, Papa..._' She mutters softly inside your head. It still feels like you are listening to a thousand tiny voices screaming in pain at the same time, but you guess it's something to do with the bonding of polar opposites, '_I did something bad..._'

You cock your head in question.

'_I... when I was born again, Papa! I let out too much energy... I can't believe how little I know about psychic energy until now! I can contain myself now, just as you liked! And everyone else can't tell-they think I'm just an average Abra! But... It's a little difficult. I have to take about a tenth of my concentration and focus it on maintaining this physical illusion... It's quite frustrating some times. I hope there's a good reason for this!_' She pouts at you with her hands on her hips, while floating several feet above the ground in front of you.

You nod.

'_Well, all I needed to know was that there was good reason, Papa. I trust you..._' She yawns sleepily. '_I think this body cannot contain all of my psychic power, but then, I think it's because I have too much raw power, Papa. I need to learn... um... Finesse, right?_'

You nod again.

'_I'll try hard, Papa. May I have a good-night kiss?_'

You kiss her on her forehead and she floats upstairs to bed. Then you turn to the television. The news is on:

_Click!_

"_-Storms on Route 12, Cinnabar Island and the surrounding area are building up to be a hurricane-_"

_Click!_

"_-Mysterious earthquakes north-west of Cerulean City continues-_"

_Click!_

"_-Several hundred dead and missing Trainers' corpses found in Viridian Forest, trails of serpent pokemon and superpower pokemon with over one thousand bug pokemon concentrated in that area-_"

_Click!_

"_-Pokemon Trainer Gary Oaks conquers Pewter City, gaining its Approval Badge. Grandson of the Pokemon Professor, Gary Oaks defeated Gym Leader Brock's League-approved team in a stunningly one-sided fight-_"

_Click!_

"_-Silph Co. announced its new prototype in planning today, no official name has be given yet, but rumors suggest that it is a new type of pokeball with even higher capture rates, causing environmental groups to go into protest-_"

_Click!_

"_-Stocks fell for the sixth time this week, as the economy continues to slump. Experts say that 'the economy will rise, sometime in the future'-_"

_Click!_

You yawn. Well, perhaps another day of rest then. You will plan what to do tomorrow. You are pretty tired tonight anyway.

* * *

><p><strong>A Do-Nothing Day<strong>

As you slept, with both Green and Misty snuggling close, Alma walked into your mind and your dreams. Suddenly, your thoughts gained clarity and you gained full consciousness of your mind as your body rested.

"You wanted to see me, Father?" A young girl's voice echoed throughout the white expanse that you have found yourself in. It was whiteness in all directions without end, with no ground, no ceiling. Only you and... a little girl. She looks like how you might have looked, if you were born a girl, you imagine. A younger, younger version of Delia with darker hair. Her most prominent feature: her brightly glowing purple eyes. She is only a little taller than your waist.

You wonder to yourself, if this is how Alma sees herself.

She giggles at you, dancing and skipping around you. There is an echo here, in your mind, that you see multiple afterimages of her as she dances. Time moves strangely. One second everything seems to stop and another everything quickens.

"Oh, Father, I am _your_daughter in heart and soul!" She giggles as she stops in front of you, kneeling and then sitting at your feet. She looks up at you adoringly. "I shall be whatever you require of me, to the best of my abilities."

You inquire about her abilities. What were her powers now?

"As you can see, Father, I can walk the dreams of mice and men. She curtsies, and only then do you notice the purple gown she wore, so alike to her icy aura. Yet it was a sharp contrast to her pale, white skin. You could see even her veins, so pale she was, or perhaps those were the markings of her tattoos?

"I have many powers, as I awaken my senses, Father." She says solemnly. "And many more will awaken when I grow in power. My ability to sense minds, to walk them, to talk in them, to caress them... they are all at my finger tips. I will not bother you, Glorious Father, with such simple details. I can connect minds, if you wished?"

An illusion appeared in front of you, showing the dreams of Misty, as she swam and swam, under the warm sun. It disappeared and then showed Green as she had you all to herself, doing things. But then, it was Delia, who was dreaming of a suave and sophisticated man in a suit, with his hair slicked back. He has hawkish eyes-red eyes, like you-and he looks down at you coldly. Then it was all gone.

"I can move things much better than before, Father. I understand the laws of physics, and I understand how to break them. It is fundamental for a simple ghost, but combined with the powers of a psychic, I can shift between the planes of existence if you wished for me to. Becoming incorporeal, ethereal, of invisible is simple for me. I'm sure I can teleport things without touching them now..." She giggled. "I was so young then, wasn't I Father?"

She hops up to you and hugs you. "I wonder, can I do what Mother Green does with you in her dreams? Or is that what Mother Misty calls 'naughty'?"

You frown at her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Father!" She backs away, clapping her hands together and bowing in apology. "I was only teasing! It's such an interesting concept!"

You fold your arms, still frowning.

"P-please forgiven me, P-papa?" She looks up at you with teary purple eyes. Her lips begin to shake as she starts sniffling.

You know it is an act, but in some part of it, you can still feel Alma's personal feelings towards you. It s a raw emotion that burns, and it touches you. Before you realized what was happening, you were rubbing her head.

"Hee hee!"

You try to be serious, asking her what else she can do.

"Well, if you really want to know, Father, I shall tell you what my calculations tell me!" Alma smiles widely at you. "I can sense any and all unprotected minds within 5 miles. That's actually not a lot, because almost everyone in Pallet Town is shielded..." Alma pouts before smiling up at you again. "But I can sense the hundreds of pokemon out in the wild now! I can't really see the future very well. It's kind of blurry to me, because there seems to be a lot of different futures that I can see them all, so they blur together... I'll try harder to separate them, don't you worry, Daddy!" She hugs you before looking up from your waist. "I'll try my best to work on my control of my powers! Um, um... But I can see far away, into any mind I can sense. I can look at the world through their eyes, erase their minds, crush them utterly until they are less than a drooling mess and still give you everything they are thinking. It's not that hard for me anymore, because it actually doesn't take any control."

You nod, understanding.

She continues, "I can ah, fade away too, like a Gastly!" At that, she literally faded into nothingness, before a smile appeared where her mouth was. "But I can still be here! Ghost pokemon don't really follow logic, so I'm actually trying to reconcile both Psychic and Ghost powers. It's a little hard, because Ghost powers are actually _magic_! Can you believe that? It's so cool! I can make scary images with Night Shade, but I can make illusions too!"

With that, her entire body set on fire, surrounded by the brightest of orange flames. "I've learned how to make fire with magic, but it's actually not that hot..." She pouts. "And I can do a lot of other stuff too! I think... Um... I can see faraway places! Like that Cinnabar Island the news report on the television was talking about! There's this Pokemon I've never seen before... It's even more powerful than I am in Psychic powers, and it pushed me away a second after I got there..."

An image appears before you, a creature of pure power.

It vanishes after a moment, with Alma's hands running through it, dispelling it from your mind.

"I can also use the Ghost kind of magic to hurt people by cursing them, but it kind of hurts me too. But it will probably kill anyone who isn't protected, if that's what you want, Daddy! That's all I know how to do right now, unless... there's something specific you want me to learn how to do, Father?" She hugs you again.

You shake your head, perhaps another time then.

You wake up.

Green seems to be having a nightmare because she is clinging to you harder than you would like. You wrap a hand around her shoulders and shake her gently. After a few shakes, she wakes, "Uh... Sa... Sato? Oh! Sato!" She buries her face back into your chest.

You question her, what is wrong?

"Oh, I just... I think I don't like bug pokemon anymore," she pouts as she raises herself.

You roll your eyes, wondering if that is all.

Green rests her head back on your chest lightly, "I just don't like dead things alright? Do you even remember what happened when I tried to open one of the cocoons?"

You do remember. A corpse, covered in green goo, fell out and fell on top of Green. You nod.

"I didn't like it at all," Green grimaces. "I think I still taste him in my mouth. Yuck."

"Then go brush your teeth again..." Misty mumbles, "Some of us are trying to enjoy this quiet time, you know?" She gets out of bed, her hair sticking up in odd places. "I'm gonna use the shower first them..."

Green sighs, "Misty just isn't a morning person."

You agree.

It was a slow morning, all of you went down stairs around noon to have brunch. Pikachu, Charmander, and Alma are sitting at the table, already eating.

"Oh, you're finally down are you?" Delia smiles at you. For some reason, you feel a shiver go down your back. "Done playing with the girls, have you?"

You protest; you haven't had the opportunity to do anything too much yet.

"Too much, huh? So something happened? Well I won't ask," Delia laughs at you. "By the way, I let your Gyarados go for a swim. Where did you talk her, anyway? She hasn't swam in a _long_time, by the looks of it. She really missed the water... Oh, and that other Greatball, I haven't gotten around to it other than having the machine do a flash heal. What's inside that you don't want out?"

A freaking Nidoking.

"Oh, I guess that's a good reason. Alright, I have to get some paperwork done so I won't be home today." She kisses your cheeks, "Be good and don't make any stains on the couch, alright?"

Delia leaves the house.

'_Daddy, Charmander wants to talk to you,_' Alma whispers into your mind.

You look at the fire dragon, leisurely drinking in his plate of bacon. He turns to you and smiles. "Char!" You see three rows of razor sharp teeth, each enough to penetrate steel.

You wave back nonchalantly, grabbing a stack of bacon for yourself. Ah, the girls are down now too. They can go cook some more brunch. You look back at Charmander and ask what it wants to talk to you about.

Apparently, you gained its trust and respect when you faced down the Nidoking. It wants to study under your tutelage now.

You tell it that it needs to be loyal and listen to you with complete obedience, which it agrees to. You nod as you go back to your bacon.

Later that day, all your pokemon, even Charmander, joined Misty and Green down at the beach, swimming and fooling around. Misty gave you some hints on training water pokemon, about how to best use their powers to your advantage and how to best take care of them. You will need more water. Alma made a replica of Delia's house and Professor Oak's Laboratory... life sized with all the equipment. It appears that she could also pick up Mr. Fish with her mind, though it is a little strenuous for her.

By the end of the day, everyone feels well rested, except you. Your wound still sting and hurt, but they are no longer bleeding. Delia tells you you should be set to have 'strenuous activities' by tomorrow. Whatever that means.

You also turned in the missing trainer's pokedex and got a small reward of 5000 Poke for it. You then split more pokeballs between Misty and Green too.

Misty is upset because you forgot to teach her more about knife fighting.

* * *

><p><strong>The Leisurely Route! Pt. 1<strong>

"We're going again? Tell me we're going to Pewter, at least!" Green groaned as she packed her things.

You tell her you're going to Pewter City.

"We're going to Pewter? Tell me we're talking the scenic tour route, at least!" Misty groaned as she packed her things.

You tell her you're taking the scenic route.

The girls cheer!

**Day 1**

You had brought Misty up early this morning to train with her in knife to knife combat. It was very fun, and she finished very flushed. She seems to be licking her lips a lot around you lately.

Green pouts, complaining that you didn't take her with you.

Compared to your heavy hitters, which is pretty much every one of your pokemon except for Charmander, Rattata is weak. He is unable to even compare to Pikachu as the two critters tackled each other. Pikachu easily overpowered Rattata with one hand. You had Rattata work on using his Fang Attack and Quick Attack, increasing accuracy of hits and damage of hits. So far, there is little improvement, but Rattata is trying hard.

There was actually no areas for Mr. Fish to practice Water Gun, other than the pond where you caught her in the first place. She is able to make the Water Gun more concentrated, but the amount of water used is still not as efficient when comparing the body size to water amount ratio of Poliwag's Water Guns. Still, it is powerful enough to blow a grown human against a wall and then crush that human's lungs-if the bones were not already crushed.

You have Pikachu hit random targets, any target that is less than two inches in diameter from between 50 to 200 meters away. After most of the day, Pikachu is getting a 75% accuracy with his thunder shock. As you have him work on Quick Attack, his accuracy at 200 meters falls to 50%.

Poliwag's all around stats are up to par... for a Poliwag. You run her ragged this entire day, causing her exhaustion. She takes most of the night to rest, unable to keep guard for camp. You allow her to put on the Machoke Belt, causing her training to toughen. She can still endure it, however.

Charmander runs the gauntlet with Poliwag and then performs some mock combat with Pikachu. You found that Charmander is proficient at spitting small balls of fire for 'Ember' attack and good at using his Tail Whip the both burn and knock pokemon down. But Charmander is terrible with melee combat, only being able to Scratch wildly at his targets.

You had Alma walking around Misty and Green's mind at all times, now you have her walking in all of your Pokemon's minds and all of the girl's Pokemons and both of the girl's minds at the same time. At first she is a little confused by who is which mind, but soon she is able to filter through each mind however she likes. She is also able to ease your pokemon's mental fatigue, causing Pikachu to continue his target practice when his mind was calling him to rest. When you have Poliwag targeting Alma, she used teleport on Poliwag by changing Poliwag's shooting angles by minor degrees each time, causing Poliwag to always miss _even though Alma sat in the same position the entire time_.

When a bold group of Rattatas attacked your group, while Mr. Fish was away and Pikachu was taking a break, Alma merely turned to them, and then all ten of these Rattata's inner organs teleported out of their bodies as Alma used her telekinesis to then flip their skin inside out. While doing this, her finesse with her powers grew as she worked, causing not a single drop of blood to be dropped, even as the organs plopped onto the ground in front of the Rattatas.

You have Alma also create parameters and shields for each of your group's minds. She finds that doing both this and walking in their minds, soothing them, at the same time strains her greatly at first. She reports that she is using up to almost 40% of her mental power to keep everything in check while maintaining everyone's peak mental defenses and relative health. She finds that as her control over both the ghost magics and psychic powers grow, her upkeep lowers and efficiency rises.

She tries to play with astral projections, but ends up with a very of the Double Team technique. She is able to create five illusionary dopplegangers of herself, each acting independently. However, the strain was too much and she limited herself to only one copy of herself being maintain at any single time. The copy is able to be a split in her mental facilities, causing her to be able to gain experience from two places at the same time. However, each time she split herself, her copies only have a tenth of her mental power at maximum and they all share that ten percent, making the higher a number, the weaker they are.

Green's Weedle evolved to a Beedrill during training and she and Misty began doing some work on their pokemon that they are not telling you about. Alma tells you that they want to surprise you by how much stronger their pokemon are. Misty had procured two pieces of Water Stones, somewhere causing Shellder and Staryu to evolve to Cloyster and Starmie.

After traveling for the whole day, by dusk you decide to settle. Now, you gather your tired Pokemon and even Misty and Green and hold out Tex's pokeball.

The moment he is released, Tex charges at you! Before Mr. Fish or any of your pokemon could interfere, you hold out your hand and tell it to stand down. It was too much for Tex, and he stumbles, kneeling before you. His poisonous, harder-than-diamond horn is just inches from your head. You move forward and hold a hand on the Nidoking's head. At first, it grumbles, causing even the ground beneath you to rumble. But you hold on, and its rage dies down. He closes his eyes and nods at you, admitting to his defeat. For now.

It is growing dark already, so you had no time to train Tex this day. Still, Tex volunteers to go out and hunt for dinner. He does so and brings back a stack of twenty pidgeys. He eats half of them. You send him out again, causing him to bring back twenty spearows.

You as you eat, you tell Tex about the type of training you will be working with him tomorrow. He agrees.

Misty hasn't said much the rest of the day, just enjoying time with her pokemon. She did say that she will tell you about something later however. Should you take her up on it, it will be a private conversation.

Green is happy with her new Beedrill, who had become so afraid of _her_that he acknowledged her as his new queen. Bulbasaur can use 20 vine whips at the same time now and her Digletts Fred and George are building their stamina pretty well.

Night... it's time to sleep. With Tex and Mr. Fish out, no predators dare approach even 50 meters of camp. It was relatively peaceful for a night out.

* * *

><p><strong>Misty's Side Quest<strong>

As you walk away from the rest of camp, Misty starts playing with her fingers. She is fidgeting, looking down at the ground or up at the sky, as long as she isn't looking at you. You can sight the signs of nervousness clearly on her expression, and traveling with her for so long, you know that she doesn't get this nervous easily.

"Sato... I... I'm sorry!" She shouts, bowing low. "I haven't been entirely truthful too you..."

You hold her close, telling her its alright. Just let it out.

"I... I'm... I lied about my name!" She shuts her eyes, almost too afraid of seeing your expression as she tells you her secrets. After a moment, where you did not say anything, only caressing her, she opens her eyes. You can see unshed tears there, ready to be spilled. "I... it's very dangerous for me, Sato, and I didn't want to drag you into this, but... but I realized that traveling with you is like traveling with death. Is... does that make any sense?" She giggles nervously.

You shrug. You have been walking with death since the day you could remember.

"I... well, my real name is Hanada. Hanada Kasumi," She clings to your chest, her eyes begging you, "Please keep that a secret! I... There's some very dangerous men out to get me."

You frown. Green should know this too.

"Yes, I know, but... it's been so long since I've had a friend to talk to, to trust," she stares into your eyes pleadingly. She has very blue eyes. "I... I'll tell you exactly what happened but... alright." With that, her eyes light up with determination and she drags you back to camp.

"I-I have something to tell you guys, all of you, about myself..." She begins...

As it turns out. Koga was working for the Rocket Society and working along their side when he took over Cerulean. While this never made it to even Oak's ears, nevermind public eyes, Misty, or Kasumi, had seen them taking down her father from behind. It was something out of a tragedy, that the villains would use Misty as a way to keep her father unarmed and defeated, and then stab him from behind.

Of course, you would do the same if you were facing such a competent Gym Leader. The Elder Hanada had been a legend in his time, about twenty years ago, he was considered the most powerful Gym Leader, using ice and water in tandem. However, after he had gotten married and started a family, his iron will slowly softened until Team Rocket could use his family against him.

Misty doesn't ask for much, just for you to be careful of the dangers she brings. Green had accepted her heartily, but you can see the fires within Misty's eyes. She still yearns for vengeance.

"Wait, so I call you... _Kasumi_now?" Green's eyes narrow. "That sounds like a ninja name!"

"Oh stop it," Misty rolls her eyes. "Just call me Misty."

* * *

><p><strong>The Leisurely Route! Pt. 2.<strong>

You take four days to get to the center of Viridian Forest. There is still a clearing where your team had destroyed the bugs, but most of the bodies are gone now, as if something had cleaned up much of the area. There are still many bug pokemon around, but they seem to be actively avoiding you.

**4 Day Timeskip**

Misty has become as almost as good with a combat knife as you. She still doesn't have the strength you do, but very few humans have the strength you do.

Green learned how to use both her hidden katana and her whip at the same time, dual-wielding them in an artistic style that you never recalled her utilizing before. She says she invented it on the spot. Alma says "Mama Green is telling the truth, Papa."

Rattata is working on his attack damage, but it's coming along slowly. He is also joining Charmander in some of the conditioning, which shows you how weak your Rattata is because Charmander can now easily overpower Rattata. Rattata is still trying as hard as he can.

There was actually no areas for Mr. Fish to practice Water Gun, only small streams you come across. She has not been able to improve it much during this time. Misty tells you, "You need to be in an ocean or a giant lake if you want to train Gyarados in water techniques. It's just too big to train on ground." She might be on to something.

Pikachu is now using his Thunder technique on his targets. It takes him about 5 seconds to charge one up to full, but his accuracy with it at 300 meters away is almost 90%. By the end of four days, he is able to do it in 4 seconds.

Poliwag is moving along well in her training... for a poliwag. She is making progress, but she is just above your Charmander and Rattata in improvement. With the Machoke Belt on, she is getting used to the difference now and is able to keep up her usual pace with it on.

Charmander just keeps conditioning himself. You make him work on everything that isn't to do with fire techniques, causing some confusion. But he is working decently well on his speed, strength and endurance.

By peaking in on the minds of others, Alma has learned Psychic, Light Screen, and Reflect. She has been using her mastery over her psychic abilities to create dozens of sand castles shaped exactly like Oak's Laboratory, and then turning it back into a pile of and then turning it into your home. All within seconds of each other.

You have Tex working on his speed and dodging. It's coming along slowly because the only one who can practice safely with him is Pikachu. He has been trying to get used to dodging Pikachu's shocks, but because those attacks are at the speed of sound, it is a little difficult for him. Still, he has been moving faster each day.

Green announced that Bulbasaur evolved into an Ivysaur. It can now use 50 vine whips at the same time, independent of each other.

Misty's Pokemon seem to be mastering Ice techniques, because you can see that the clearing she was practicing in for the last few days has ice that seems to be never melting. It was a miniature ice rink.

Pikachu +Lv. 2  
>Poliwag +Lv. 2<br>Rattata +Lv. 1  
>Charmander +Lv. 2<p>

Starmie +Lv. 1  
>Cloyster +Lv. 2<br>Seel +Lv. 1

Beedrill +Lv. 1  
>Ivysaur +Lv. 5<br>Diglett +Lv. 3  
>Diglett +Lv. 2<p>

* * *

><p><strong>The Leisurely Route! Pt. 2.2<strong>

"So, you want to hear about my childhood, huh?" Misty grins shyly at you. "Why, that's sweet of you, but you don't need to..."

You stop her with a finger on her lips, gently.

She blushes, unwilling to look up at you, but nods in consent after a moment. "Alright, but it's not all that... glamorous as people imagine it."

You shrug. The true story is infinitely more valuable than an exaggerated tale.

"Heehee, don't be silly," Misty sighs. She sits down with her arms on her knees and her cheeks in her palms. "I wish my childhood was a fairy tale sometimes, but when I wish it, only the most unpleasant part of the fairy tale becomes my life."

You add that this isn't the prettiest of worlds for her to have a fairy tale in. And you add some references to the grim stories of the Grimm Brothers.

"Oh, sure..." Misty rolls her eyes before turning away from you, her eyes slightly unfocused as she drifts into her memories, drifting into her past. "I... my father was a powerful man. He was taller, stronger, and faster than anyone in our city, and a kind father... a gentle father. But, then he... I'm sorry, Sato..." She sniffled as tears fell down her cheeks freely. "I-I can't do it...!" She cried as she jumped into your arms, letting all of her pent up frustration and sorrow out.

You later take Misty to camp, carrying her light form in your arms carefully. She had cried herself to sleep, after crying out her story of how she had to evade and dodge all attempts to capture her for the past month. She had been strong both for herself and for the image of her father that she still carried in her heart, but now that she had let it all out, she looked much more calm and peaceful.

Later that night, as Misty slept soundly, wrapped around her Seel, you take Green for a swim in the air. That is, Alma giggles as the two of you float into the sky. She listens to your heart, directing you flight to the point where it is almost like you are naturally flowing through the air.

"-Satooo-" Green yells at you, the wind blows heavily around you. You had taken the foolish action: looking down. You realized that you were several hundred meters above ground already. You can barely hear her, with all the wind around you!

You shout for her to come closer, but she just starts to spin around and perform cartwheels around you.

Green is giggling wildly, "-This-has-to-be-a-dream-!"

You try to convey that it isn't and that it was only the work of Alma, who was invisibly swirling around you. You can still sense her through some kind of connection you share, otherwise she is invisible for all eyes to see.

"-If-this-is-a-dream-then-I-want-you-to-strip-!" Green launched herself at you, like a giggling human missile. The moment she impacted, she wrapped her legs around your thighs and her arms around your neck. "-Hold-me-!"

You comply. Then...

"-I-wanna-fall-!"

Before you could protest, Alma lets both you and Green free-fall from the sky. As the speeds pick up, you hear Alma's giggling within your head, echoed by Green's laughter as she whooped. Just before you were to splatter on the ground, mere inches away, Alma teleports you back to where she was, removing all the inertia in a single move.

Your heart beats wildly-that was a situation you had never anticipated and you mentally frown at Alma, who shyly sticks her tongue at you in your mind. You couldn't really get angry at her, so you settled for sliding an arm around Green and floating in the air with her, swimming freely.

After almost half an hour, Green was beginning to yawn tiredly, so you descend slowly. She slept soundly that night. She seems to be worrying about things less lately, or at least, that was what Alma could tell you. She still has somethings on her mind, like Misty's secret, you naked, and giant monsters rising out of an extra-dimensional city called R'lyeh. Green also seems to be having doubts that she would be able to keep up with you, because she is placing you on a pedestal in her mind, as perfection. At least she is sleeping soundly now, if also with an amused grin on her face.

Somehow, by morning, both Misty and Green were wrapped around you even though you slept in separate parts of the camp. Strange.

**The Leisurely Route! Pt. 2.3**

"Father..." Alma walked into your white, blank dream, "You wanted to see me?" She asked, tentatively. She seems nervous, an emotion that is rolling off of her in waves. It was the moments like this that reminded you that she is not even one month old yet-still a newborn child, even in the eyes of Pokemon. However, you must teach and talk to her while she is young before habits set in.

"Father, what are you thinking?" Alma wondered as she walked up to you, her head cocked to one side curiously. "I... you are the only one I can never read, Father. What do you desire of your loving daughter?"

You hold her hands, looking into her eyes sternly. She almost flinches as your serious look frightens even her, before she focused on who you were to her. You hold her by her shoulders, feeling her trembling beneath your hands. She seems so small, so young, so tiny from here... so in need of guidance. Your guidance.

In your hands, her potential is limitless, but you must set those limits to what you are most comfortable with.

You tell her of why manipulating the emotions of your loved ones, even with the best intentions in mind, will make their development artificial and a mess... something they are not meant to be. You warn her that it is a bad thing, causing her to tremble and tear up in your hands. You hold her close, shushing her and whispering calming and loving words that you had learned from Delia when you were younger. Words that she used to sing to you when you were but a babe.

You tell Alma that she is not in trouble. She has not hurt anyone, and her intentions are pure. But she must remember that even the best intentions can lead her astray, and you do not want that for her.

She sniffles in your arms, nodding. Her vast intellect, so much greater than your own meager human mind, comprehends your words and processes your meaning.

She just needs to understand, you tell her. You ruffle her hair, patting her on the head.

"I... I won't fail you, Papa! I'll control myself!" She nods vigorously.

You tell her that she does not need to limit herself against foes, only need to take care around family. Even then, as long as she does not play with her family's minds like putty, there is nothing wrong with exploring her depths.

She smiles brilliantly at you, almost blinding you with only the sole emotion of happiness. She really wishes to make you proud.

"B-but... Papa, can you s-sing to me again? Please?"

After a short internal struggle, you relent and spend the rest of the night lulling her into a peaceful sleep.

**The Leisurely Route! Pt. 3**

The next day both Misty and Green looked very much refreshed. They both gave you a chaste kiss on the cheeks for good morning before getting ready to train their individual Pokemon. To Green's dismay, you had Charmander burn the outer layer of her cane-sword so that it was a black cane. You also removed the diamond or whatever crystal was on the top of it and stashed it in the pack. She did not look very pleased, but she understood your reasoning. Green demands that you hold her and cuddle her later for an hour to make up for this.

You asked the girls what they thought about Alma enhancing their training with psychic powers. They simply shrugged, completely trusting your judgment at this point.

**Day 6**

You have no way of finding any textbooks on anything this far into the wilderness, but thankfully your PokeDex is an abundant source of information for History and Maths. Alma is learning the History of the world quickly, but she is starting to ask a lot of questions about the stupidity of humanity that you find hard to answer at times. She thinks you are just giving her a challenge to solve the question for herself. She is still learning Maths-or more importantly how to apply it. She would later discover a topic called Physics that she learns much about. She wants to try to split an atom, but does not know how... yet.

Alma has begun to make crop circles in the grass, but then learned to levitate individual grass blades and sharpen/reinforce them with psychic energy to the point that they could cut steel. Apparently she read somewhere in your HANDY505 PokeDex that there was a move called Razor Leaf and tried to emulate it with psychic/ghost powers. She is still learning how to apply her ghost properties to the individual blades.

Mr. Fish is working well with Tex. Thanks to Alma's help with speed-learning, speed-thinking, and speed-reactions, Mr. Fish and Tex are learning dodging maneuvers very well. Tex has developed some kind of block-like form of fighting similar to TaeKwonDo. While Mr. Fish is using a form similar to an assassin martial arts style simply called Snake. Where Tex has many simple, one twitch movements making up his style, Mr. Fish is using many complicated moves to become like a slippery eel.

Mr. Fish has become better at dodging and evasion than Tex, but Tex has learned to apply more power with more speed. When you watch them spar, you are reminded of an ancient cartoon called Dragonball Z. They are still developing their styles.

With Alma's help, Pikachu's Thunder technique only takes him 3 seconds to charge up now. However, he is still having problems with hitting targets he cannot see when using an arced Thundershock. With Thunder, a gigantic bolt, 5 meters in radius, shoots from his body and catapults at the locations he targeted. Without being able to see his targets, Pikachu can hit 50% of his targets with Thundershock this way and 75% with Thunder. With sight, the numbers are the same for Thunder, but Thundershock's accuracy jumps to 90%. After all day, it seems like this is the best he can do, unless he completely surrenders control to Alma for her to control the direction of his electricity. Pikachu is averse to this.

Poliwag, Rattata and Charmander are working on their conditioning together and occasionally spars with either Misty's team or Green's team. They come out with about 20% wins in these spars. Charmander is slowly pulling ahead of Rattata and working about as fast as Poliwag at the moment.

Rattata keeps conditioning. He is still growing slowly, but much faster since Alma begun to enhance your training sessions. He is still the weakest of your team.

Charmander's problem is that his flames, no matter how powerful or hot, will not hit a target passed 25 meters. Like a flamethrower styled weapon, he is best at the mid-ranged combat. Still, you have him run natural gauntlets while continuously utilizing his fires. Soon, he is using flames so much that he faints from physical exhaustion. You cannot push your normal pokemon the same way that you are pushing your... more powerful pokemon.

By the end of the day, you are almost out of the Viridian Forest. Tomorrow, you can travel about three quarters of a day to reach Pewter City at the same speed you have been traveling so far.

Cloyster +Lv. 3  
>Seel +Lv. 2<br>Starmie +Lv. 2

Diglett +Lv. 2  
>Diglett +Lv. 2<br>Ivysaur +Lv. 3  
>Beedrill +Lv. 4<p>

Rattata +Lv. 2  
>Poliwag +Lv. 2<br>Charmander +Lv. 2  
>Mr. Fish +Lv. 1<br>Alma +Lv. 1  
>Pikachu +Lv. 2<p>

* * *

><p><strong>The Leisurely Route! Pt. 3.2<strong>

"Alright then, Father!" Alma walks into your empty, desolate dreams and grabs your hand. "To Pewter we go!"

The sensations of being grabbed and psychically projected dozens and dozens of miles in a matter of less than a single second is not something you could readily describe. It was similar to teleportation, yet completely different. At the end of it, you feel disoriented. The bile within your mouth threatens to rise, held back by only your will power. Then you realize that this is all occurring within a dream-there is no reason for you to feel anything.

On paper, you know that Pewter City is one of the larger, militarily stronger cities of Kanto. It is the source of most of the soldiers of the Nation, even the infamous Lt. Surge is from Pewter City, though few know this. It is divided into five sectors.

The northern most sector is Sector 2, the academic section. There are several institutes of learning here, along with a military school. However the most famous of this district is the Sector's Museum, which houses some of the oldest artifacts known to humanity.

The second northern most district is known as Sector 3, the trainer's section. It is where the Gym is, along with a Colosseum-styled arena. From what you know, Pewter City has over 10,000 armed and trained Pokemon Trainers, most of them living in this area.

Below that district is Sector 4, the health section. This is not so much an actual health district but an all around utilities district. The main power plant for the city is here. There is a Pokemon Center and a PokeMart here. There are also two fire departments and two police headquarters here. And there is a wide range of other such things here, but most of them to do with the running of the city.

The southern most section is called Sector 7. On its east side, the urban housing and apartment complexes are located here. On its west side, the shrinking commercial district of Pewter City is there. Due to Gym Leader Brock's policies, entrepreneurial spirit and venture capitalism has been weak in the city for the past decade.

There is one other section of the city, but you would hesitate to call it a district. It is the slums area of Sector 9, the eastern most area of the city, one that is constantly under siege by bands of wild Pokemon that roam the area. Some times even Pokemon from Mount Moon itself are lured out, causing much havoc in Sector 9. It is as close to a city-scale wasteland as can be, littered with empty, abandoned old buildings. The military of Pewter City use this area for exercises at times. One of the oldest tradition of the military is to drop soldier who had just finished boot camp training into the eastern most edge of this Sector and have them travel back. Survival rate of this exercise is low, but all who survive this are some of the best soldiers in the world.

As you float in the air with Alma, you can see thick concrete walls surrounding Pewter City even from miles away. There are multiple watch towers, with searchlights and guards walking their walls. Alma estimates that there are over 5,000 people and 10,000 Pokemon on the entirety of the Pewter City walls this night-a normal number by a city of this size's definition. Every building is worn and gray, hopeless and bleak. There is dust everywhere not on the main, black asphalt roads. Gravelers patrol the city roads at all times. Of the 10,000 on the walls, about 90% of them are Geodudes.

You ask Alma to move closer, towards the Sector 3, where the Gym is.

She complies, taking you there, dozens of miles of flight in an instant. What you see does not surprise you. Even in the dead of night, there are several hundred trainers working on both their own body and the conditioning of their pokemon. Most of them look like they are preparing for war. But these are the elite trainers of Pewter City, you can see. Many of them have final evolutions of their pokemon.

As you drift down, towards the ground. you see a man drilling most of the trainers. Alma tells you this is the younger brother of the Gym Leader Brock. You keep moving.

Within the Gym itself, there are only about twenty people, and most of them are asleep. The Gym itself, on the inside, looks like a battlefield. There are mines, wires, constructs, barriers, bunkers, sandbags, obstacles scattered everywhere. As the end of the Gym, you see a simple, stone throne. The throne of Brock, master of Pewter City for the past two decades.

You scout the area some more, but most of it is spartan and Brock is soundly asleep. However, he seems to be able to feel your presence, because the moment your astral projection entered the room with Alma, he drew his Pokeballs and shot up, wide awake.

You have scouted and mapped most of the city now. It is nearly sunrise, and time for you to return. Alma yawns next to you. "Daddy, that was boring... we didn't even have time to see Sector 2..."

You ruffle her hair, before waking up.

* * *

><p><strong>To Pewter!<strong>

Your group travels to Pewter City on foot for the most of the day. It is almost dusk when you arrive. It is 4:30 by PokeGear time. The sky is red, mixing with the few yellow lights left in the sky.

Green looks like she is really tired of walking so much. Misty doesn't look so bad, but then she is in much better condition than Green in the first place.

"Are we there yet?" Green groaned out from behind you.

"No," both you and Misty reply. Green has been going on and on about sitting down for a while. But it won't matter, because you are out of the forests now, just passed here...

...Wow. What a majestic sight from a far. Even though still almost a mile of battlefield-like land left to travel, you can see the walls of Pewter City. It stretches on for miles in each direction, completely different from the view in the sky. The stretch between your group and the walls is littered with guns, swords, and all other types of weapons stuck into the ground, like a field of weapons, the _hill of swords_.

A graveyard.

A hundred watch towers overlook the desolate field of battle. A thousand eyes on you. Ten thousand scars of chaotic fighting on this area of the plains.

The walls are almost ten stories high, vast and tall. Imposing. You can see hundreds of heads handing from the edges, and on the gates.

The gates to the city are huge, enough to fit both Mr. Fish and Tex in at the same time, twice over... and with room for four more on top.

From the top of the powers overlooking the gates, a voice is heard, booming through a mechanical voice box, "Stop! Do not move any further. State your business with the City of Stone."

**To Pewter! Pt. 1.2**

You tell the voice box above you that you are here to train and test your strength, confidently.

"Ha!" The voice on the other side scoffs at you, "Test your strength indeed? Well, then, push open the city gates if you want to test yourself! Well, go on now. Go ahead, try it."

The gates are many layers of steel and stone, each door at least 30 meters high and 10 meters wide. The gates look incredibly heavy and thick, with redundant layers and frames and levers holding it closed. Alma tells you that there are many gears within that hold the gates together. Alma thinks that to push them both open, you will be pushing almost 30 tons of steel and stone.

She detects that on the other side, it takes almost a hundred Geodudes and 4 Golems to operate this gate.

**To Pewter! Pt. 1.3**

'_Affirmative, Father._' Alma nods from her perch on your shoulders. '_I'm ready when you are. I cannot directly open it because it will strain my capacity, but I can make the levers move that it seems like you are pushing, Father._'

As your stride confidently up to the stone gates, Misty runs up behind you. She tugs on your sleeve and whispers to you, "Are you sure you know what you're doing, Sato? We can come back later if we have to."

You pat her hand gently and smile at her.

She lets you go and nods, dazed. Green walks up from behind her with a smirk and whispers into her ear, "Don't worry, Misty... What's the worst that can happen?"

You stand before the stone gates. Their combined weight was such, that it looks like there are small cracks in the ground. Hm. They look absolutely _ancient_up close.

You press your hands against both doors and put your weight into your push. At first, you can hear the sound of electronic laughter coming from the voice box, but then the creaking of the door silences all the guards. You can feel Alma's cold aura growing as she exerts her power on the doors, slowly opening them until they allowed enough space for humans to pass.

A clunk of a sound reverberates from the voice box, like the sound of someone dropping a microphone. You ignore it and wave for the girls to follow you. Green giggles and skips innocently towards you while Misty trails behind her, scanning left and right for cameras or whatever the guards used to watch your group.

After you had all gone into Pewter City, a group of ten men wearing clean, black uniform of military design walk up to you. They all have a tiny silver badge on their chests and their shoulders.

The leader scans you with his eyes, looking up and down. He is a middle aged man with some white strands of hair amidst his grays and blacks. He grunts after a moment and nods, before saying in a gruff tone, "Don't cause trouble, kid. I know what you did, though I don't know how you did it. If you step out of line, me and my men will take care of you, understand? You see those heads, skinned and all, up on the Wall? You'll be onna them if you don't obey the rules of Pewter." He smirks at you before turning away from you. "We, the Stonetroopers of Pewter, will be watching you. Don't be stupid."

With that, he leaves.

The first thing you do is go to the PokeMart, which you reach around 6 PM. Even the clerk in the store is scarred and worn. He looks ready for a fight. He turns you and nods at you as you walk in, which you return. There are more goods here than at Viridian City, but due to the declining economy of Pewter City, it is still lacking many of the goods that you might want from a major city.

[Universal Bug Repellent: 350 Poke]  
>[100ft of Rope: 550 Poke]<br>[Basic Hiking Gear: 25,000 Poke]  
>[Basic Underwater Gear: 25,000 Poke]<br>[Basic Pokemon Food: 50 Poke]  
>[Great Pokemon Food: 150 Poke]<br>[Survival Gear (Green's size): 15,000 Poke]  
>[PokeBall: 200 Poke]<br>[Potion: 300 Poke]  
>[Super Potion: 700 Poke]<br>[Universal Poison Heal: 100 Poke]  
>[Universal Paralyze Heal: 200 Poke]<br>[Universal Burn Heal: 250 Poke]  
>[Universal Ice Heal: 250 Poke]<br>[Universal Awakening Heal: 250 Poke]  
>[Universal Adrenaline Shot: 500 Poke]<br>[Medkit Refills: 1 Per 25 Poke]  
>[One-Time Upgrade (Mapcard of Mount Moon): 1,000 Poke]<br>[One-Time Upgrade (Medkit 10/10 slots): 5,000 Poke]  
>[Armor Upgrade (Survival Gear to Advanced Survival Gear): 10,000 Poke]<br>[Survival Helmet: 2,500 Poke]

A universal adrenaline shot is a concentrated dose of awakening that cause either pokemon or humans to quicken their senses with a shot of adrenaline. Duration depends on Pokemon size. Can cause heart problems.

Advanced survival gear is one tier higher in defensive properties compared to Misty's gear, but still four tiers lower than your own. However, this version comes with knee and elbow pads that are made from micro-fibers that form an elastic guard over those joints.

The survival helmet is a piece of gear that covers all of your head. It also has some super-hard micro-fiber cloth that covers your neck and part of your shoulders and back too. It looks like a Kamen Rider's helmet.

[Fresh Water (10 liters): 200 Poke]  
>[Soda Pop (10 liters): 300 Poke]<br>[Lemonade (10 liters): 350 Poke]

There is a vending machine that sells compacted liquids using a technology similar to the PokeBall technology, which allows more liquids to be stored into a smaller container. Each of the containers within is a small tin that looks from the outside to only be able to contain 100 milliliters while in fact it holds about one hundred times the amount within. There is a nifty metal nozzle on top that allows for compressed water to be released slowly.

* * *

><p><strong>Buying and Selling<strong>

You look at the list in your hands.

Survival Gear (Green's size): 15,000 Poke = -15,000 Poke

Armor Upgrade (Survival Gear to Advanced Survival Gear): 10,000 Poke x2 = -20,000 Poke

One-Time Upgrade (Medkit 10/10 slots): 5,000 Poke = -5,000 Poke

One-Time Upgrade (Mapcard of Mount Moon): 1,000 Poke = -1,000 Poke

Universal Bug Repellent: 350 Poke x5 = -1,750 Poke

Potion: 300 Poke x7 = -2,100 Poke

Super Potion: 700 Poke x 4 = -2,800 Poke

Universal Poison Heal: 100 Poke x 10 = -1,000 Poke

Universal Paralyze Heal: 200 Poke x 5 = -1,000 Poke

Universal Burn Heal: 250 Poke x 4 = -1,000 Poke

Universal Ice Heal: 250 Poke x 4 = -1,000 Poke

Universal Awakening Heal: 250 Poke x 4 = -1,000 Poke

Universal Adrenaline Shot: 500 Poke x 2 = -1,000 Poke

Fresh Water (10 liters): 200 Poke x 10 = -2,000 Poke

Soda Pop (10 liters): 300 Poke x3 = -900 Poke

Lemonade (10 liters): 350 Poke x2 = -700 Poke

Basic Pokemon Food: 50 Poke x 10 = -500 Poke

Great Pokemon Food: 150 Poke x 6 = -900 Poke

...58,650 Poke. An outrageous, outrageous number. That is almost the double of the average minimum wage over a whole year in Kanto. Still, you must purchase what you must purchase.

You sell your gold nuggets, earning yourself 40,000 Poke. This was enough to leave you with 4,585 Poke. Now, you have spent to your heart's content, what else is there to do here? You eye the Hiking Gear for a while, before telling yourself no, not yet.

You turn to Misty and Green, telling them both to buy some rope. Other than that, they are free to do what they want with their money. They both discuss it with each other and come up with a list they will buy for themselves. They decided to get just ten of the fresh water packs for each of them. Green also modifies the advanced armor she has on so that she is still able to wear her skirt. Now it looks like her normal clothes plus thigh-high stockings and elbow-length gloves.

As you leave the PokeMart, the clerk catches your Pikachu trying to take a bottle of ketchup. Thankfully, it's only worth 5 Poke, but it was still embarrassing to have to cover for him. You frown at him, but he is just leisurely drinking his ketchup. Green begs for you to not be mad at Pikachu.

You wonder since when did they become so close.

As you walk out of the PokeMart, the group of Stonetroopers approach you. It is the same group that had warned you not to cause trouble. You frown and inquire, because you have not been causing trouble, only stimulating their economy by buying goods.

"Cut the shit, son." The leader of this patrol of Stonetroopers grunts to you. While he is the leader of this band of secret police, he does not seem all that interested in his job. Alma says he is thinking about pudding. "I don't give a two-bits about what you did. Brock wants to see you, so move it. Come on." He waves at you, signaling for you to walk down the road towards the Pewter City Gym in the distance.

As you begin to walk, he leans closer to you and whispers, "I'll give ya a warning though, kid. He's not asking for ya because of your little stunt at the gates. If it makes you feel any better though, the idiot who was running shit at the vox is getting his ears screamed off by the drill sergeant. Eh." Nudges you forward and yells in a loud, obvious voice, "Hurry up 'n get going! Don't keep the Big Brother waiting!"

* * *

><p><strong>Big Brother! Pt. 1<strong>

It was nighttime by the time you had entered the Pewter City Gym with Misty and Green. The Stonetroopers pushed you inside and closed the door, leaving you all in the dark. Then, light clicked, to the side of the Gym. You had seen this place last night. You know that there are hundreds of mines in this place, hidden with the help of giant builders. However, the light seems to be showing you the way.

As you took your first step, an arrogant voice echoed from the center of the Gym towards you, "You know, I just _knew_I would see you if I waited here a few days." It was a voice that you are very familiar with. It is Blue.

You quicken your steps, dragging Misty and Green along. Alma had already made herself invisible, so only Pikachu now sits on your shoulders. As you entered the throne room, you saw inside a few people who looked somewhat related to Brock, probably his younger siblings, and Blue, standing next to him.

"_Satoshi!_" Blue greets you with his arms wide open. He does not approach you, but he is putting on an act of joy. It would seem real to all present, except you and Green. She grunts in feminine annoyance next to you, but keeps silent for now. "You know, I was _sure_I saw your companion somewhere the last time we met." He says with his eyes on Misty. Brock is looking at her too, stroking his chin and looking thoughtful. "The missing heir of the Hanada family, who'd have thunk it?"

Blue jumps off of the stage and walks to you. He grips your forearm as you do the same, in the ancient forefather of the handshake. It was a silent sign. It was a sign that the two of you had worked out a long, long time ago. He is purposely going to betray you or one of your own for the sake of... Hm. He gripped your arm for only one second, so there is only three reasons he is putting on his act.

One: he is using Misty to draw out a hidden enemy.

Two: he is using you to gain the trust of Brock.

Three: there is a hidden element at work.

It could also be... all of the above...

"See? Stoic, like I told you," Blue turns around, smiling at Brock brightly. "It's a good thing I told you to look out for him, and for your guard to stale him enough so that you guys got a clear shot of his face, right?"

Brock sits up on his throne with a darkly brooding frown. After a long moment, he nods, "Yes, but I knew they were here. I am the city's Big Brother, after all. I see all that goes on within my lands. Still, I had never hoped to meet the only _true_daughter of the illustrious Hakoda Hanada before my throne. But it is a good sign. The old blood... has power, after all."

Misty stepped forward, facing only Brock, and in the coldest tone you have ever heard form her, she asked him, "And why have you called me out?"

"Hrm. She has the ice. I like that," Brock's hands pyramided together. The shadows hide his eyes, yet the lights illuminates his brow and cheeks even more. He looks very much a planner of intricate plans. In a much louder voice, he addressed both Misty and his siblings. "The time has come for the Great Culling once again. The Pokemon of Mount Moon will come at Pewter in the tens of millions. I will call upon the old pacts..."

"Oh?" Misty's eyebrows rose, "And what shall I get for defending your city?"

He walks to Misty, ignoring you. With a growl he says, "I do not need you interfering in the defense of _my_city, but there is something you will do for both of our benefits. In the chaos, Team Rocket has taken the opportunity to sneak from the mountain ranges south east from here, several drill machines of some size. They intend to make a maneuver for the Sacred Moonstone Shrine of the Clefairies and Clefables while they are focused on bombarding my walls."

You stand next to Misty, and as specifically, what does Brock want with _all_of you.

"You... will go and stop the operation," Brock grunts. "It shouldn't be any problem for you, right? Gary has been all about telling us how skilled you are. How great you are. Didn't you, Gary?"

Gary nods, with his arms crossed. Still part of the plan. Hm.

"In accordance with the old ways, though I would need to give you something in return," Brock mutters, frowning at Misty. He smirks after a thought, "I shall offer you refuge then, Hanada. For as long as you are in this besieged city of mine, you shall have... refuge. I trust that is enough for such a mutually beneficial act?"

Misty grits her teeth for barely moments before assuming a neutral expression. It seems like she knew what Brock was hinting at too: that he could, still technically, sell her out to the Rockets if he wished. The consequences for her and for you would be dire. He wants to force you to do his bidding. To serve him.

Misty turned to you, helpless.

You nod to her, understanding, but it was Green who gave the affirmative, "I had always wanted to catch me some Clefairies. We're going that way anyways, right? Hey, Brock, are you giving _us_some kinda rewards though? We're not good-two-shoe idiots, derp."

Brock processed this bold request and nodded. "Fine. I will see to it that for every Rocket bounty you turn in, you will be rewarded 5,000 Poke per life. Deal?"

"Then you can start with these," you toss the belongings and identification of the nine Rocket members you had killed in cold blood at Brock's feet.

He looks down and signals for one of his siblings to check out your loot. After a while of searching and scanning, his sibling nods up at him. Brock gives you a chilling smirk, "Fine. Keep killing Rockets, and I think we'll get along just fine. Go rest or something. You'll need it. The Rocket Operation for Mount Moon occurs in one week's time. Make sure you are prepared and ready to go. Dismissed," he waved. With that, his siblings pushed you out of the Gym.

From the corners of your eyes, you can see Gary, who had begun talking as soon as you were dismissed. Hm.

[+45,000 Poke]

* * *

><p><strong>Hello Nurse<strong>

"We can work on other things tomorrow, Sato," Green murmurs as she rubs her stomach. "It's already 7, and I haven't eaten yet..." She pouts.

You suggest that your group head to the Sector 4, and look for the Pokemon Center. It did not take long, only about half of one hour. Alma helped by giving directions of which way to go.

When you walk inside the spartan-looking Pokemon Center, you see seven pink-haired girls barely older than Misty rushing around the lobby. They are all wearing tight, simple nurse uniforms. One of them is at the reception and perks up as she sees you.

"Welcome to the Pokemon Center, My name is Joy, but you can call me Yui, handsome," she says, tracing her lips with finger seductively. Yui leaned against the counter, accentuating and focusing on her already incredibly buxom chest.

You inquired about the forests west of the City.

Yui visibly deflates, "Oh, you're one of those battle-holics, huh? Why are all the good ones taken, obsessed with Pokemon, or gay?" She laments towards the ceiling. After seeing that her act had no visible effect on you, she smiles wearily at you, "Sorry, long day, hun... What's on to the west? Well, Victory Road is to the west. There's an extremely steep slope that rising in elevation as you head that way, with Pokemon more powerful than most people can train in their lifetime. Why? What's it to ya?"

You give her a disarmingly charming smile, leaning an arm on the counter, close to her. You could hear Green actually _growling_at this. You flirt with her blatantly, causing even Misty to pout, but the girls are patient and they hope that you have a reason to do this. After a minute or two, you ask about Sector 9.

"Oh, that dump." Yui sighs, blowing air out of her lips that her bangs aside. She then leans back and rolls her eyes. "It looks like you want a history lesson. Fine, there's the short version: twenty or so years ago, Brock's dad was trying to expand the city and make the economy better, so he built Sector 9. He also built Sector 8, but there's nothing left of that other than some rubble. You'd have passed it if you were coming into town. _Any_way, Sector 9 was built outside of the wall. It was all nice and stuff... for half a year. Then, the First and the Second Culling happened. Over a million Pokemon attacked the second time-and no one could explain why. But the casualties were so many that Brock's dad retired right there, and let Brock take over. After that, almost ever year or two, we've been attacked. I think about a year ago, Brock found out that someone was causing this, and that the Rocket Society was involved somehow, so he killed them all and hung them on the walls."

Yui leans in and whispers to you, "Personally, I wouldn't blame Brock. I mean, that was _half a million_people who died in that Second Culling..."

You ask about the Moonshrine.

"Moon... Shrine? I don't know anything about a moon_shrine_, unless you meant moonshine? No? That's too bad, I make a mean... ah," Yui looks around and whispers, "You're not underage, are you?"

You raise an eyebrow at her, showing your Pokedex.

"Ah, right, right," She nods, "Licensed to do everything adult."

You ask about the Rocket Operation on Mount Moon.

"Eh? If they come, I'm sure Big Brother'll get them, I'm not too worried," Yui shrugs. She doesn't seem to know anything about Team Rocket.

You eat dinner at the Pokemon Center that night quickly, and soon it is 8PM. There is a little bit of time left for some other activities, but not much.

You had taken some time to look out from the walls, at Sector 9. It is much worst than a desolate wasteland. There is ruination everywhere. It... it is hard to describe. Alma does not want to linger there, because the psychic imprints of death, destruction, bloodlust, and pain are so immense, she feels almost overwhelmed. She could also feel something in the air, in that area, calling to Pokemon to slaughter humans. She cannot understand what it is, but it has a very powerful spiritual pressure.

Sector 9... a picture of hell on earth.

* * *

><p><strong>Welcome to the Arena<strong>

It was 8:30 PM by the time you had finished grabbing protective helmets from the PokeMart. It's good that you did, because they have many features, such as bulletproofing, shock-proofing, blunt-proofing, heat-regulation, low light vision, air filtration, and back and shoulder armor. They cost you a pretty penny however, leaving you with 7,500 Poke less than when you entered.

Seeing that your expenses were dragging you all down, Green suggested the idea of visiting the Arena. Earlier she had been talking with Yui Joy, who mentioned that betting is allowed at the Arena and that you could make a hefty sum there.

You remember seeing the Arena from above, but seeing it from the streets was quiet different. It was a majestic sight to behold. Huge, taller than the walls around the city, towering over you. There is a constant roar of the crowd calling for blood, and a constant resounding noise of the clash of Pokemon.

Green paused and stops your group before you head inside. She explains the rules of the Arena, "Alright, there's two ways of doing this. We can go in and just jump into the ring and challenge the people inside for a battle. Or we can look for the pairs and battle together. Either way, there is a betting booth where you can place bets on us. I don't know what kind of odds you'll get, but it probably won't be too bad..."

Misty adds, "So what do you think, Satoshi? Should we divide up and eat look for an opponent or stick together? I think you get a better payout for doubles, but it's not _that_ much better. Still... I don't think I'm very confident about this..." She sighs and shuffles her feet. She seems strangely shaken and nervous.

* * *

><p><strong>Into the Arena<strong>

You tell Misty and Green to go and have fun on their own, but impress you. Both girls smirk, and after a few carefully chosen words, Misty's shoulders rise and she perks up. They walk into the Arena confidently together, with you in tow. You had also temporarily lent them the PokeBalls for Mr. Fish and Tex, until they finish their matches.

The Arena itself is a gigantic colosseum, with a large, circular arena in its center. There are ten different fights going on at the same time. While Misty trudges along behind Green, Green just jumped right into the floors of the Arena and announced, "If there's any aliens, time-travelers, or psykers here, please come out here now! If not, I challenge you guys all to a Pokemon Battle!"

It was her gutsiness and perkiness that won out in the end, causing most of the combatants already present to smirk or laugh.

And thus, you walked to the betting booth and placed your bets. The clerk at the counter looked over at the girls and gave you 3:1 odds against them, with a betting limit of 5,000 Poke. You bet it all.

From then, to 10 PM, the girls each won two rounds, netting you 90,000 Poke. However, the girls giggle and each take 30,000 Poke for themselves, which to them is fair because they did all the ground work this time.

As you walk away, you bump into a teenager, perhaps half a dozen years older than you. He is with five of his friends, and he grabs your shoulders and spins you around, out of your girls' hands. With cockiness and full of confidence, he yells, "Hey, kid! You bump into me and don't even apologize? You got guts strolling around with your girlfriends... How about a _real_match, eh?"

You notice his friends surround you, and yet the Stonetrooper guards nearby do not interfere.

**Red Gladiator! Pt. 1**

You ask him, what exactly is a 'real' fight?

The teen smirks at you maliciously, all the while leering at Misty's and Green's bodies. He leans close to you, with his hands in his pockets, and responds arrogantly, "It means, little boy, that we will meet in the Arena. Man to man. Understand? No armor, no guns, no Pokemon, just you..." He stabs at your chest with a finger, "and me."

You understand and agree, but ask the rules of the confrontation, even though Alma has already told you what he has in mind.

"Well, unlike spars, we'll fight for_real_. That means maiming, crippling, cheap tricks are all allowed... even killing," He licks his lips, leering at Misty's chest. "You _man_enough for it, punk?"

You nod.

"Then let's go register, it'll take them an hour to process this," the boy laughs to his friends, "I hope it's not passed your bed time. Though, you girls are welcome to join us when you're ready for bed."

Both Misty and Green grimace.

After you had registered, the betting booth began calling out that a human arena match will begin in an hour. They place the bets 10:1 against you, and considering that this was a rare event, many people place their bets against you as they see your picture. There are over two thousand people who have already bet against you in the first five minutes.

Misty whispers, "I hope you kick this guy in the balls for me, Sato."

"No, don't do that," Green growls. "Just kill him dead."

The strange thing is, his goon-like friends stay around your girls, even as he goes down to prepare. You leave Pikachu and an invisible Alma with the girls, just in case. The goons snicker when they saw that all the girls had to protect themselves with was a Pikachu.

It took some time to prepare, and you left your items with the girls, who had placed all the maximum amount they could bet on you: 50,000 Poke. You understand that the Arena will be cleared of Pokemon Battles to allow this gladiatorial fight. There are melee weapons along the walls being placed now; maces, flails, swords, daggers, axes, chains, sickles, scythes... everything you can think of.

You are allowed only a pair of sandals and a pair of small, leather shorts into the ring.

As you walk up to him for the customary greetings and exchange of banter before the fight, the cocky teenager grins at you slyly. He whispers, so that no one else could hear, "My friends will kill your girlfriends if you hurt me, you understand?"

**Red Gladiator! Pt. 2**

"Hn," you stare impassively at your opponent. You do not blink, you do not twitch. Your emotions are cold and unthinking.

It makes him afraid. And all animals, when afraid and cornered, will choose to strike.

He had picked up two swords charging at you with one in each hand. Your opponent roars like a lion, loudly and brashly. He projects his moves to you in both his momentum and his style. His unrefined movements make his steps look clumsy and childish to you.

Time slows down.

As he charges, you move like a blur. His reaction time is far too slow to even perceive that you had stepped forth and formed a knife hand which you stabbed against the joints of his arm. All he saw was a black flash, as you appear behind him.

His left arm, too numb to utilize muscles, drop his sword. Before it touches the ground, you spin around and pick it up by its pommel. As he stops, staring down at his numb arm, you stab the longsword into the ground behind you, driving it so deep that only the hilt is seen.

His eyes wide, you opponent turns around. You see a light glimmer of a thin sheen of sweat rolling down his back and his face. He is fearful. Good.

He sees his sword behind you, and gathers his strength into a coil in his arms. Too terrified or blinded by anger, he runs to you without charging. He is learning. Instead of overextending his arms like his previous charge, he holds his sword close, but as he approaches, he begins to swing wildly.

First he chops downward, which you sidestep, causing his strike to miss you by a hair.

He yells wildly, cutting upwards, "Die!"

You lean back, with your hands falling loosely to your sides. His blade misses again. But there is power in his swing. You could feel the wind, cut by the air pressure, blowing passed your face.

Without stopping, he cuts across with a chop. You duck low, just enough that his blade brushes against your hair. You jab with your forefinger and middle finger knuckles at the joints from below the armpits of the arm that you had already made numb. You are able to put in jabs before you used quick foot work to get behind him and step on the calves of his legs, causing him to buckle.

He turns around again, eyes mad with rage. "Y-you..." He tries to say, but your continual stabs at him each time makes him only angrier. "You don't care about your friends?" He tries another tactic, a foolish, weak one.

You stare at him expressionlessly. Then, you part your lips just enough to allow the whisper, "who says your friends are even alive anymore?" part from your lips.

His eyes widen and he takes a half-step back before righting himself. You can see that he is very fit for his age; he has incredibly compact muscles for someone his age. So he has a reason to be arrogant. But he must understand his error.

You move first this time, as time slows once more for all but yourself. As you duck below his guard, you see how awfully idiotic his expression was, so frozen as it was. You jab your fingers a his other arm. At least, that was one he could perceive. But in fact, you had stabbed fifteen times at his shoulder joint.

As he raised his arm, his grip fell loose and his remaining longsword fell from his hands. Before the blade could touch the ground, you pick it up with two fingers pinching its point. You flip it with your fingers into the air, a dozen meters above you, and then catch it with that same hand.

You place a hand behind your back and point the longsword at him, as he backs up while you close in. With inhuman speed, you lunge forward, like the fencing moves that Green often uses. The flat of the blade slaps against the teenager's ribs, causing a thin line of red. You duck back immediately as he flinches. Then you lunge in again, slapping him on the other side of his torso, leaving another line of red.

You nod to him, as he understands what you are able to do. He knows, the widened eyes of his, displaying so much white, such a frantic pair of pupils... he knows you _are going to school him_. You do not smile, you do not laugh. With methodical coldness and mechanical grace, your footwork moves you at blinding speeds, far faster than his eyes could follow.

To his perceptions, all he sees is multiple after images as you zigzag to him, corning him. Your lunges are fast and merciless, each resulting in a thin line of red on his forearms, elbows, knees, thighs, inner thighs, ribs, armpits, cheeks, neck, shoulders...

He pants, with a hand on his knees and another hanging down his middle loosely. That left arm of his, still has no feeling, with its nerves only crying out in so much pain that there is no pain there anymore. Sweat drips from his forehead down to the hot sand. It is humid and hot, even during the night. You can see that he is tired, from all his failed attempts to dodge you. You can see that he cannot even see clearly, with all the sweat going into his eyes, the dazed expression on his face...

...And he probably sees that _you have yet to sweat_.

It takes you another minute of harassment, multiple slaps with the flat of the blade against his neck and face, to cause this cocky brat to shake dizzily. Two more carefully chosen hits to the lower legs cause him to fall into a kneel.

You move the blade, letting the tip linger against his adam's apple, before you raise his visage with the tip. He could barely see you know. You can see him, tired, scared, confused. He must be thinking where did this all go wrong, wondering why did things turn out this way.

You lean in, all the while holding his chin up with the tip of the blade. You whisper into his ears, "Don't ever threaten my girls." Your voice is soft and sweet. Even he could barely hear it, "Even death is allowed, right?"

His panicked eyes twitch frantically, fearfully. He scans left and right, hoping for something, someone, anything to interfere. He regrets this. You frown as you see a small stain of liquids on his leather shorts, a yellow stream down his legs, and a small puddle at his feet. With a wrinkle of your nose, you back up and stab the blade into the ground, just a millimeter away from his crotch.

"I win," you whisper harshly.

**Red Gladiator! Pt. 3**

You may seem calm on the outside, but on the inside, you are burning with fury. This man... no, this... child dared threaten your girls? Yours? To threaten that which you possess is to threaten you yourself!

You walk around him, to his back, and kick his lower spine with an audible snap. Then you turn to face the crowd, as you picked the teenage brat up by the scruff of his neck and yelled into the stadium.

"Tell them!"

You shake his body, as you hold him up. You roar again, even as the imbecile you hold trembles with fright, "Tell them what you threatened me. Tell them!"

You can see that there is a screen at the end of the stadium. There are megaphones, blasting the noise that came from the Arena floor. All eyes and ears are on the boy you held up.

"...I-I..." He croaks. You knew what he was trying to do, just to spite you. Your hand clutches tighter, causing him to squeal in pain.

"Tell them the truth, tell them your dirty deed..." You growl, trailing off and whispering up into his ears; your very tone was a threat to him.

"...I... I'm sorry, p-please! L-Let me l-live...!" You hold him up, causing him to choke as your hand gripped tighter. Your other hand was still behind your back. He whimpers again, and then tries to say in the loudest squeak he could make, "I-I t-tried to h-hold y-your friends h-hostage! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm gakk-"

With a twist of your wrist, your clench on his throat crushes the bones within. His body falls, flopping down on to the ground, lifeless, still pissing his pants.

You glare up at the hush stadium, at the thousands of eyes on you, and say calmly, "Don't threaten me and mine. Ever."

With that, you collect the girls and help them collect their winnings. You noticed that five goons were charred around the girls, even as they happily chattered away as they saw you, pampering you.

You're tired. You return to the Pokemon Center with the girls, shower together and go to bed. Pikachu found no bugs in the room, surprisingly. You were too tired to even dress for bed. So tired, mentally. You have not exerted yourself in such emotions in a long time.

Gained: [+1,000,000 Poke]  
>Experience Gained:<br>Ivysaur +Lv. 2  
>Beedrill +Lv. 4<br>Starmie +Lv. 2  
>Seel +Lv. 1<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Alma in the Nightmare with Diamonds<strong>

"Father?" The little brunette girl walked into your dreams, her heels clicking softly, as if stepping on ceramic. "Father!"

She jumps at you, seeing you so tired that even she could not heal you immediately. "Father? F-father... today, at the Arena...?"

You stand up, despite all the aches in your body. This is a dream, you tell yourself, as you brush off all the hurt and the aches. You reach forward, grasping your Alma and holding her close. She melds into your embrace for what seemed like hours before she mumbles into your chest, "Father...?"

You pull away slightly, so that you can see her fully.

"Father, was... why did you kill that man?" She asks, "Was it because he would come back and hurt us, even if you didn't kill him?"

You sighed, knowing that this would be a long conversation. Firstly, you take your time with your explanation and tell Alma that if the situation had been a little different, you would have apologized to avoid escalation and moved on. If it had been in a different city, you might have reported him for threats or harassment.

You point out that it was also the nature of this guy's threats. He was a bully, but that was not an adequate advantage for him; he threatened to have his friends kill our friends. Alma's mothers... and before he would hurt them, he would have 'fun' with them.

With each word, Alma's eyes grew dimmer as some spark of innocence drifted away, leaving a cynical husk. She turned to you with still her devotion, yet says with the most chilling screech-like howl, "**Why should humans even exist? All they do is cause suffering**." But she is not a cold murderer-not yet anyway. You can feel her tears drip down her cheeks and wet your chest.

You lean close and hug her again, giving her the warmth and comfort that she so dearly desires. You ask her, that if she really thought so, would she also desire your death? That question startles her. She looks up to you with baggy eyes, shaken. Her brilliant purple eyes stare at you in question, wondering... what is the correct answer to this question?

But you ruffle her hair and whisper to her sweetly and softly that there is no correct answer. There never is, for moral dilemmas. But even so, you wish to be a preserver of life, not a destroyer. At least, not yet.

Alma nods to you cutely and blinks up at you, swaying her long eye lashes over her beautiful eyes. Though her body was not her own in the physical realm, her eyes are still her eyes. You can see that.

You ask her to pull and pull, looking for 'Uncle Blue'. As it turns out, Uncle Blue was still awake, on a rooftop over two hundred meters from your room, looking around your proximity through a glass. Alma wonders if it is really the right thing to do to disturb him, but then he takes a shot, and takes a rest. It was that moment that Alma grabbed his mind-

"-Oh, what the hell?" Blue grumbles as he is tossed into a heap in your dreams. He stands up without looking at you and brushes imaginary dust off of his shirt and pants. Then he turns to you and your 'Abra'. "Of course, Red. Hell, it's about time." He says, as a cigar suddenly appears in his mouth. "Oh, goodie, this is a dream and not a psychic construct. Wonderful, what did you want?"

You inquire about the signals he gave you at Brock's Gym.

"Those? Really? You haven't figured it out yet?" Blue rolls his eyes at you as the dreamscape suddenly turns into an ocean resort and a lawn chair appears before Blue. He plops down and takes a sip from a margarita in his fingers. "It's simple, really. There are still about 200 members of Team Rocket still active in Pewter. Guess who's the clean up, now that Pewter's defenders are too 'busy' to do it themselves? Me."

He sighs and after a long moment, he continues, "Look, I know exposing Hanada Kasumi is a risk that I didn't have to take, but if I didn't take this risk the mission would take exponentially longer-"

You interrupt him by punching him so hard, he skids several dozen meters. He rubs his face for a while before standing up again and brushing the dust off his clothes.

"Alright, I deserved that one," Blue says, "That was stupid of me, but there's something more involved here. Gramps says that Agatha... you know, the leader of The Elite Four? The leaders of the Kanto League? Well... she's involved in the Cullings. I need to figure out how to save hundreds more lives of the defenders... so what's one compared to that?"

You growl and grip his collar. You yell about how your possessions are far more important than the random, nameless...

Blue pats your hands and nods. He speaks again, calmly, "Look, it's not like I'm spitting on what you believe in. I'm not saying 'go drowned in your ideals and die', or something, Red. I'm just saying that if given the choice? What would you really rather do? Spend time hunting down people in hiding or spend time saving hundreds, if not thousands?"

He stands up and a portal opens in your mind. "Look, I have to go, there's probably more Rockets heading your way, ready to try to get a shot at Kasumi... you really need to design your dreams better, man. This place is _duuuuull_. Smell ya later, bro," Blue says before he jumps out.

You look over at Alma. After hugging her for a while, resting your chin on her head, you relent.

She nods, and in a moment, Misty is dropped on your lap with only her sleepwear on. That is, she was wearing next to nothing, other than white lace underwear.

You cock an eyebrow at her, really? White lace?

She covers her chest and blushes, "What's wrong with white? Sa... Hey, where are we?" She looks around, "this looks like..."

You explain to her that this is your mind, as you sleep. She nods through your explanation.

"Aw, man," Misty brushes her hair back, "Even in your mind, I can't figure out what's going on in your mind. How sad is that?"

You hold her close and apologize for what occurred at the Arena. If it wasn't for your own greed, you would have never encountered that roving band of hoodlums. Misty slaps your arm. Hard.

"Really? I think I remember Green and I dragging you into the Arena..." She giggles for a moment before sighing, stopping her cheerful charade. "Alright, you got me, Mister Mind Reader..."

You protest that you have never read her mind yet. You don't never have psychic powers!

"Coulda fooled me," Misty sticks her tongue out at you. She then rolls her eyes and settle down against your neck. "I... Today wasn't that bad. I mean, I actually beat up two of those goons before Pikachu even took the time to roast them into charred pieces of... Ahem, Anyway, what's with your friend? He didn't seem... You know..."

You explain that Gary has his missions that he is following, both of which are far more dangerous than what Misty has faced so far. She pales a little, but then sighs, contently. "Well, at least now I know I have two monsters looking out for me, not just one."

You protest again; you are not a monster!

She giggles against you, "Coulda fooled me..." She yawns, "I'm tired..."

She hugs your torso as you rest your chin on her hair, breathing against her softly. Soon, she fades from your mind.

You turn to Alma. Perhaps you should thank Pikachu for all his help today? Alma agrees and takes you by your hands. "Alright, Father. I'll take you to Him."

You frown. But before you protest, you are transported to the dreams of your Pikachu...

...A warm fireplace. A vast library without end. Two awfully comfortable looking chairs. The smell of rose tea in the air, a fragrance that you have not taken in, in a long time. That is what greets you inside of Pikachu's mind.

You turn left and right, looking for Alma. She is not there.

You turn left and right, looking for Pikachu. He is not there.

After a half second, sounds of footsteps approach. You turn around, seeing something that might look like Pikachu, but different. He was taller than you, the size of man. He had the face and smirk of your Pikachu, no matter how you look at him. Yet...

...You see the vast, leathery wings furled at his back...

...You see many long, thin strands that might have looked like noodle pieces, but were in fact tentacles, swaying at his chin...

...You see clearly into his eyes now, clearer than in reality. His eyes... full of madness. You can barely focus, looking into his eyes. You turn away, only to realize you never looked into his eyes in the first place.

Yet this man had a clean, expensive looking suit on, that could have doubled as a robe too. He has expensive leather slippers that made little sound as he walked. In his mouth, just above that forest of withering and wiggling tentacles, you see a large, long tobacco pipe. He also wore a monocle.

"Ah, Red, good ol' chap," He says as he wraps an arm around your shoulders and leads you to the warm hearth. He sits you down on one of the two chairs while he sat on the other. "Charming that you join me. It has been some time, I do believe. Come, would you like some tea? I was just contemplating about our existence, you know?"

You sit back onto your seat, it is comfortable and soft. You accept the tea for it reminds you of your childhood. Childhood? You had no childhood... did you?

"You know, I was just wondering," Pikachu mutters, "What our existence really means. Do we really have free will? Or are we just pieces on a board? Letters and words in a story? Are we merely puppets, created to amuse our cosmic overlords, who watch us and direct our every move for their amusement? I wonder... Oh, you look awfully tired. You should sleep, Red. Sleep."

Next morning, you wake up, remembering only your dream escapades with Blue and Misty.

* * *

><p><strong>Interlude II<strong>

_Ringring! Ringring!_

You pick up the phone; it is the Illusive Professor.

"_Red_," his voice comes through the static, "_How have you been recently?_"

"Well, Professor."

"_Good_," you can hear the sizzle of his cigar. He drawls, taking his time, "_I have a job for you, are you willing to do this, for humanity?_"

"Of course, Professor."

"_My sources have intelligence on an assault to the core of Mount Moon by Team Rocket. They intend to take the largest piece of Moonstone Ore in the world. Understand that this is __**an army**__ going after the stone. It is a resource which the executives of Team Rocket will use to unleash unspeakable horrors upon humanity. I... have found sentimental value in this Moon Shrine. It has been many decades since I have last visited. However, I should still have sway over the Grand Clefable who rules the tribe, spiritually. I will upload the map information of how to reach Her directly on your mapcard in 5 days..._"

He pauses, waiting to see if you have any objections.

After a moment, he continues, "_The Clefairy and Clefables in that region will not be enough to stop the Rocket Assault Team Squads. While the indigenous tribe numbers almost to 1,500, the R.A.T.S. will be using five sophisticated, armored drill devices that are large enough and powerful enough that they will withstand almost any conventional Pokemon or human attacks. Each are fifteen ton monstrosities, and each will be backed by at least two hundred trainers each. Sources state that these are all experienced Associates, each coming with at least 10 of their own Pokemon on this venture. It will be dangerous. However, they are split on five parts of the mountain, making the engagements with each group individual... I am sure you will come up with some kind of plan for this be stopped, because if they succeed... much will be lost._"

You reply, "I will find a way."

"_Yes, you have the will for this..._" He takes a drag before adding, "_I want you to acquire something from the Clefable too. A gem. Complete these two tasks and you shall have your job well done. The rewards for such a job completed will be discussed further when you return. I... I regret to add that the trainer who previously trained the Charmander was to be your back up. I... I had high hopes for him too." You could hear the rage in the Professor's voice, before he fell silent. After a few loud, deep breaths he continues, "Blue will back you up where he could, but he has another mission from me. I will clue you in on this, because you are in the area: I suspect the last fifteen Cullings have been caused by my old acquaintance, Lady Agatha. She certainly has enough control over ghost types to cause such a thing. Should you help Blue complete his task in stopping the ghosts in the resident's 'Sector 9' before the Mount Moon Operation, Blue has orders to assist you in anyway he could. That is all. Are there any questions?_"

"None, professor."

"_Good_," he mutters, "_Killing over one thousand humans will be harsh, even on you. I know killing over ten thousand Pokemon may be harsher still... It is a pity that you will need to eliminate all of their Pokemon as well. But remember, we do what we must, because we can. To preserve the delicate balance between humans and Pokemon, we must, or else all is lost. You know what it means should we lose the balance. Oak out._"

_Click._

_Beep. Beep._

* * *

><p><strong>Rocky Inquiries! Pt. 1<strong>

"Oh? You're planning to drag us on another suicidal adventure, are you?" Misty peeks over your shoulders as you finished your call. She looks like she is teasing you, but you never know; the minds of women are yet still a mystery to you.

"Yeah, yeah," Green nods in the background.

"Tajiri Satoshi," Misty shakes her forefinger at you, "You know how we feel about this!"

"Of course, of course," Green nods in the background.

"You ought to know, you need to talk to us about this too, you know!" Misty crosses her arms and pouts at you. "You can't decide everything without telling us!"

"Obviously, obviously," Green nods in the background.

"A-and..." Misty blushes, twiddling her fingers, "W-we care about you, idiot! If you keep trying to kill yourself like that, we... we worry, you know?"

"Uh huh, uh huh," Green nods in the background.

"So that's why you need to include us in your planning!" Misty finishes her lecture.

"Dummy, dummy," Green nods in the background.

Then both of them stare at you hopefully, begging with their wide eyes with tears just threatening to spill. In an instant, they are clinging to your arms, pressing themselves against you.

'_Papa is too weak against Mamas,_' Alma sighs in the background, making the obvious observation. You tell her to go commune with Professor Oak's Alakazam and learn more psychic techniques. She gives you a mental pout, but it is just a teasing gesture, because she loves to learn and study and to use her vast mind. You add an afterthought for her to also learn the Safeguard technique, to which she replies perkily (an attitude she picked up from Green), '_Got it, Papa! Student Alma is on the job!_'

"Satooo~!" Green waved a hand in front of your face before snapping a few times, shaking you out of your communique with Alma. "Ah, you're back! As I was saying, most of the native mercenaries are being held by the city to work on the fortifications of the city. Yui said that there's only one that can still spare people, and they only have new recruits. It's a group called 'Blackwater Riders'..."

"Well, why don't we check it out first, Sato?" Misty added opportunistically.

You agree and leave the Pokemon Center with the girls to Sector 3, where the mercenary corps were all located. You can see hundreds of mercenaries and soldiers drilling, getting prepared beside their Pokemon. Almost all the Pokemon here are Rock or Ground type.

You see the Blackwater Riders building. It is a small, two story build that looks barely larger than an apartment complex. It is rather worn down and covered in graffiti. You can barely decipher some of the words drawn onto the walls, the paint that had been graffiti-ed on having been smeared.

"-w̬͚o̮r͙̯̺̝͡s͍̜ͅt͏̜͔͙͕ ̝́m͍̹̱̮͖̻͠ercs in the ̵͙̳̹͇̘̹b͎̟͈̬͓̝i̸̭̼͉͉̘̙z̝̪͔-"

"-te̱̭͉r̘͔̝̬ri̭b̶̼͕͙͇͓͖le҉̤̙̦̭ ̛͖̦͖̹̼̯̤newbs̵̫ ͕̯̼͇̦̯ͅg̘o͓͠ ̙̠̭̮home̹͓͖̗͇̦ͅ ̘͎c̷̮̰̘̻̦e̜͖r̜̟̮̙͞ͅu̘͓̲̰͔̙ͅle̸̩a̶̫̠̲̲͎͔n҉͕ fags-"

"How terrible," Misty mutters, as she walks in behind you. You can see her expression has become stormy.

The inside looks like a small lounge with a simple receptionist sitting at the desk. The moment you walk in, a small ring of a bell is emitted by the door. The receptionist looks up, surprised. Perhaps barely anyone uses in this mercenary service?

"Welcome to Blackwater," she says, her professionalism showing despite her initial shock. "My name is Sharon, how may I help you?"

"We're here to pick up some mercs," Green leans on the counter of the reception suavely, "Hey there, cuteness."

"Er, erm, excuse me, Miss, but..." The receptionist looks flattered and flustered, but she tries to keep to herself.

Thankfully, Misty leapt forward and dragged Green back. Green kept struggling in her hands, but Misty kept a hand on her mouth and another holding her arms. She nods to you before whispering something softly into Green's ears. Immediately, Green calms down and her face changes to the color of a tomato.

Right. You nod to Misty in thanks before turning to the lady at the desk. You ask for the price range and the services offered.

"Well, you came to the right place, sir. We offer caravan escort, and-" She was cut off by a man who walked out from behind the counter.

"Hold up, Sharon..." He says as he takes a good look at your group. "Well, bless my heart and-ah! Where are my manners, we'll take their job, whatever it is."

"B-but sir, the..." Sharon frowns, confused.

The man waves a hand at her, "Ah, ah, ah. This is one we have to take. Plus, it's better than waiting for jobs, eh? I'm sure this'll be a worthwhile venture." He says before turning back to you, "Come on, we'll grab a private conference room for this."

After a few minutes of walking through the building, which looks by any standards, like two floors of office cubicles, you arrive at a surprisingly private room. It is soundproofed and lined with lead.

You sit down with one girl at each arm while the man sits down across from you. He leans forward, on the table and says to you serious, "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw your face on the security cams." You realize he is not talking to you, but to Misty, "Madame, I... my associates have been searching for you for a long, long time. It is good to see that you are safe."

Misty frowns. Suddenly all of you are on the defense, with your guards up, but then Misty speaks, "I... I know you, you're... Sailor..."

"Sailor Parker," He nods before adding, "That was my title back when I worked under your father. It has been... a long time. The times have been hard on us, as they have been on you, undoubtedly. We have been building our forces here, waiting for the day you would arrive. You... arrived faster than we anticipated, really, Kasumi-dono." Parker bows.

Misty whisper to you and Green, "He was one of my dad's students..."

"My fellow disciples and I were driven from Cerulean City when the Fuchsians took over with Team Rocket... We turned to Pewter because it was one of the few places that did not welcome those factions." He mutters harshly before looking up, "But now that you are here and needing our support, we will give you what little we can spare."

"We need manpower, _Sailor_," Misty's eyes become hawk-like and her voice cutting like steel. The inner Gym Leader within her takes over and adds, "We will need everything you can muster. Both Pewter and the Greater Indigo Leagues are in peril should my mission fail..."

She then gives him a brief description of what will be needed. That first she wants to stop the Cullings, which are caused by the Ghosts in Sector 9. And then she needs support to make a decisive victory at Mount Moon."

"I see, My Lady..." Sailor Parker frowns and scratches his chin. "We do not have much forces, as attrition has been tough, but here is the list of trainers, including myself and our own forces that we can bring into this endeavor."

* * *

><p>[<strong>List of Blackwater Mercenaries<strong>]

Sailor Parker: Horsea Lv. 43, Seadra Lv. 43

Sailor Eddie: Azumarill Lv. 48

Swimmer Diana: Golduck Lv. 48

Swimmer Joy: Cloyster Lv. 48

Swimmer Briana: Seaking Lv. 46, Seaking Lv. 46

* * *

><p>"I can also call upon a few of my students..." He smirks sheepishly at Misty while scratching the back of his head. "Erm, I took on some students as a way to support our group since we got here to Pewter, but... they would not be much help, I suspect, unless you want some meat shields. However, they all are trained in armed and guerrilla combat... by me personally. But if you want to get them, it'll cost you a pretty penny. Around 100,000 Poke for all of them and my crew to gear up and get ready, here's the list..."<p>

* * *

><p>[<strong>List of Students<strong>]

Lass Janice: Pidgey Lv. 9, Pidgey Lv. 9

Lass Sally: Rattata Lv. 10, Nidoran Girl Lv. 10

Lass Robin: Jigglypuff Lv. 14

Bug Catcher Colton: Caterpie Lv. 10, Weedle Lv. 10, Caterpie Lv. 10

Bug Catcher Greg: Weedle Lv. 9, Kakuna Lv. 9, Caterpie Lv. 9, Metapod Lv. 9

Bug Catcher James: Caterpie Lv. 11, Metapod Lv. 11

Youngster Ben: Rattata Lv. 11, Ekans Lv. 11

Youngster Calvin: Spearow Lv. 14

* * *

><p>"I hope you got a plan, whoever you are," Parker adds, looking directly at you. "Lady Kasumi might trust you, but these are good men and women I would be trusting their lives in your hands... Do you have a plan? What exactly is out there in Sector 9, anyway?"<p> 


	6. Information for Part 3

**ALL IS RED**

**[Additional Information Codex]**

**Pewter City**  
><em>Population: Approx. 2,225,000<em>  
>(Large Sized City)<p>

GDP: 29,800,000,000 Poke  
>GDP per capita: 85,750 Poke<br>Exports: 12.4%  
>Imports: 19.5%<br>Unemployment: 7.2%

Main Imports: Fruit Crops, High Technology Machinery, Metals, Crude Oil  
>Main Exports: Militant Mercenaries, Firearms, Wheat, Manufactured Vehicles, Pokemon Body Parts, Academia<p>

Number of Pokemon Centers: 1  
>Number of League Sponsored PokeMarts: 1<br>Number of Gym Buildings: 1  
>Number of Elementary Schools: 5<br>Number of Secondary Schools: 8  
>Number of Academies: 4<br>Number of Colleges: 2  
>Number of Police Stations: 2<br>Number of Fire Stations: 2  
>Number of Hospitals: 5<p>

Crime Rate: 1.9%  
>Number of Thefts Reported this year: 3<br>Number of Missing People Cases this year: 429  
>Number of Fire Cases this year: 221<br>Number of Murders this year: 0  
>Number of Executions this year: 1044 (990 are Rocket Society members)<p>

This city specializes on Rock-Type pokemon and has been thus for the last 900 years. Its current Gym leader, Brock, has been on the Stone Throne of Pewter for the past 22 years, following the retirement of his father. The Pewter Gym Leader has a large family, of which all members work within the administrative departments of the city. To its north and west is a dense forest and mountainous region that is nigh-impossible to pass due to powerful bands of Pokemon roaming the area. To its south is Viridian Forest. To its east is the Route to Mount Moon, which has heavy concentrations of rock type pokemon. Around every two years, thousands of them converge to lay siege upon Pewter City. It is run by a socialist regime.

This city has five major districts: Sector 2, Academia. Sector 3, Combat. Sector 4, Utilities. Sector 7, Commerce and Residential Housing. Sector 9, Dystopia. Sector 2 is north of Sector 3, which is then north of Sector 4, which is then north of Sector 7. Western Sector 7 is a Commercial District. Eastern Sector 7 is a Residential District. Sector 9 is to the east of the whole city.

People are currently migrating away from Pewter City.

Problems: constant harassment from bands to armies of wild Pokemon, enforced socialism, heavily militant and hostile towards outsiders. _This town recently slaughtered every single known employee of the Rocket Society within the city limits and hung their heads on the surrounding city walls as trophies._It is almost always attacked by wild Pokemon, although to little success on both sides due to the Pokemon on either side being used.

This city is considered to be a large sized city with lower levels of income.

* * *

><p><strong>[Additional Shop Information II]<strong>

You can also sell the Diamond. However, Alma, using telepathy, tells you that with a Diamond of that value, the store owner will only be able to pay 15,000 Poke and give you a store credit of 35,000 that you can also use to pay for jewelery. Or you can use that 35,000 credit at the blacksmith his brother owns, which can get you more knives and swords. However Alma cannot determine how many for how much from this distance and at this time. She estimates you can get the value of, if one neo-steel sword is worth three combat knives, then you can get the value of about five knives or one sword and two knives. Alternatively you can use the store credit at a gun shop his _other_brother owns. The store credit will net you one combat rifle with five clips of ammunition, or three high-power pistols and ten clips of ammunition.

[Basic Neo-steel Sword: 21,000 Poke]  
>[Basic Neo-steel Combat Knife: 7,000 Poke]<br>[Basic Electro-magnetic Assault Rifle: 30,000 Poke]  
>[Electro-magnetic Rifle ammunition clips (5050): 1,000 Poke]  
>[Basic Hi-power Pistol: 10,000 Poke]<br>[Explosive Hi-power ammunition clips (10/10): 500 Poke]

* * *

><p><strong>Mount Moon<strong>

_"It is a common misconception: that Mount Moon is that entire mountain range. It is in fact only that one peak, not even the tallest, you know? The sole reason is it called what it is called, is in fact because it has several thousand Clefairies living on it worshiping a shrine to an enormous, raw Moon Stone ore. This is often called the Moonshrine by those who have actually traveled to Mount Moon... that is, there are less than one thousand people who actually know what this is, all over the world. It is unlikely that even a small country can take it over, however, because of the sheer number of Clefairies there. The last time there was an attempt that actually reached the shrine... well, it was met with almost one thousand Clefables. I... I was one of the few who had brought a psychic Pokemon. It was pure luck that I was touching it at the time, or else... I would not be here right now."_

-Anonymous

**Moon Mountains**  
>A major mountain range in the Sino Continent that stretches about 1,100 miles (1,770 km). It is most famous for the peak Mount Moon, in the Kanto Region, which is 9,550 feet (2911 meters) in elevation. It is littered with Moonstones ores, which in other parts of the world, usually needs to be drilled for for hundreds, if not thousands, of meters. There are many indigenous populations of Pokemon that makes any major venture into this region far too dangerous.<p>

**Mount Moon**  
>Mount Moon is the center of the Clefairy and Clefable species of Pokemon population throughout the world. Their mythical combat technique, Metronome, is well known for its alien ability to recreate nearly any effect in existence, which makes these species perhaps one of the most dangerous known to man. There are two major strategic locations within this peak, <strong>Moonshrine<strong> and **Labyrinth**. The Moonstone ore at the Moonshrine is estimated to be over five tons, an unimaginable amount due to the light weight of this material, even in raw form. The Labyrinth is the only way for anyone to actually reach the Moonshrine, due to the walls of the Labyrinth being some unknown composite of super-compressed carbon, too hard for civilian drills to break through.

Estimated Pokemon Population: 15,000,000  
>Estimated Dangerous Pokemon Population: 1,500,000<p>

* * *

><p><strong>[Pokemon]<strong>  
>[Red's Team]<br>-Red's Poliwag (Lv. 20) (Maximized IV)  
>-Red's Pikachu (Lv. 20) (Over-maximized IV) (Holding <strong>Special Light Ball<strong>)  
>-Rattata (Lv. 13)<br>-Mr. Fish (Lv. 27)  
>-Alma (Lv. 16) (Maximized IV)<br>-Tex (Lv. 43)  
>-Charmander (Lv. 18)<p>

[Deposited Pokemon]  
>-Pigeon (Pidgey) (Lv. 10)<p>

[Misty(Hanada Kasumi)'s Team]  
>-Starmie (Lv. 31)<br>-Seel (Lv. 29)  
>-Cloyster (Lv. 25)<p>

[Green(Leaf)'s Team]  
>-Ivysaur (Lv. 25)<br>-Beedrill (Lv. 21)  
>-Diglett (Lv. 24)<br>-Diglett (Lv. 25)

* * *

><p><strong>[Current Inventory]<strong>  
>[Key Items]<br>-Reinforced Backpack  
>-Sentimental Pokemon League Cap [Equipped]<br>-PokeGear [Equipped]  
>-Dogtag inscribed "S. Pilgrim, Viridian PKMN Academy"<br>-PokeMediKit (30/30)  
><strong>-Rainbow Wing Feather<strong>  
>-Application to Join Team Rocket (x2)<br>-Set of Rocket Grunt clothes (x1)  
>-Rocket Grunt PokeGear Information(x1)<br>**-Pokedex (505)**  
>-Rocket Associate's Data-pad<p>

[Money]  
>-1,072,080 Poke<p>

[Trainer Gear]  
>-Empty PokeBalls (x21)<br>-Potion (x15)  
>-Super Potion (x4)<br>-Universal Poison Heal (x15)  
>-Universal Paralyze Heal (x5)<br>-Universal Burn Heal (x4)  
>-Universal Ice Heal (x4)<br>-Universal Awakening Heal (4)  
>-Universal Adrenaline Shot (x2)<br>-Universal Bug Repellent (x5)  
>-Experience Share (x1)<br>-100ft of Rope (x1)  
>-Fresh Water (10 liters) (x10)<br>-Soda Pop (10 liters) (x3)  
>-Lemonade (10 liters) (x2)<br>-Basic Pokemon Food (x10)  
>-Great Pokemon Food (x6)<br>-Machoke Belt (x1)  
>-Empty GreatBalls (x0)<p>

[Misc Items]  
>-Survival Helmet [Equipped]<br>-Diamond (x1) (Equiv. 50,000 Poke each to Jewelers)  
>-Reinforced Trainer Clothing (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Stunguns (x2) [Equipped]  
>-Silenced Pistol (910 Ammunition) (x1) (Equipped)  
>-Extra Pistol Clips (x10)<br>-Extra Rocket Grunt High Caliber Clips (x12)  
>-Machete (x1) [Equipped]<br>-Throwing Knife (x3) (Equipped)  
>-Untraceable Cellphone (x1)<br>-Rocket Grunt High Caliber Pistol (x2)

[Misty's Items]  
>-Survival Helmet [Equipped]<br>-Misty's Advanced Survival Armor (Equipped)  
>-Combat Knife (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Universal Poison Heal (x3)  
>-GreatBall (x2)<br>-PokeBall (x14)  
>-Potion (x6)<br>-100ft of Rope (x1)  
>-Fresh Water (10 liters) (x10)<br>-35,450 Poke

[Green's Items]  
>-Survival Helmet [Equipped]<br>-Green's Advanced Survival Armor (Equipped)  
>-Awesome White Hat (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Rocket Grunt Bullwhip (x1) (Equipped)  
>-Hidden Katana in Black Cane (x1) (Equipped)<br>-Universal Poison Heal (x3)  
>-Rocket Grunt Taser (x1)<br>-PokeBall (x17)  
>-GreatBall (x2)<br>-Potion (x6)  
>-100ft of Rope (x1)<br>-Fresh Water (10 liters) (x10)  
>-35,450 Poke<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Pokemon You Own<strong>

Note: Individual Values (IV's) range from 1 to 31 on all normal pokemon. With 1 being the weakness of its kind and 31 being the strongest of its kind. Going above 31 equates to being stronger than any other of its kind.

**MR. FISH**  
><em>Gyarados Rex<em>

Weight: 2072.5 lbs (940 kg)  
>Length: 106'8" (32.5 meters)<br>Height: 21'4" (6.5 meters)  
>Gender: Female<br>Level: 27

_Found and caught by your bare hands on Route 1, this powerful, shiny Red Gyarados is a majestic sight to behold. She fears no enemies, as her impossibly hard shell allows her to endure punishment beyond even what a modern tank can withstand. She has the power of serpents, allowing her to practically plow through almost any enemy without need for finesse. You may have to teach her about that. Her unique coloration allows her allows her to stand out, but it seems to give no visible bonuses. She seems more intelligent than a normal Gyarados. She is also extremely afraid of you for some reason._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 33<br>Attack: 33  
>Defense: 29<br>Sp. Atk.: 31  
>Sp. Def.: 29<br>Speed: 32  
>Health: 30<p>

Moves Known:  
>Thrash<br>Rage  
>Bite<br>Splash  
>Tackle<br>Flail  
>Tail Whip<br>_Tail Smash (Tail Whip that does damage)_  
>Roar<br>_Spit (1/5 powered Water Gun)_  
>Water Gun<br>_Snake Style (Slippery Evasion)_  
><em>Snake Style (Coiled Strikes)<em>

[The Snake style is an assassination skill. It uses an unusual, whip-like set of movements that can come from any direction around an opponent, causing extreme amounts of Confusion. With this unpredictability, Snake users can also learn a type of slippery defense, evading many attacks.]

**PIKACHU**  
><em>Pika Pika Pi Chuchu<em>

Weight: 13.2 lbs (6 kg)  
>Height: 1'4" (0.4 meters)<br>Gender: Male  
>Level: 20<p>

_You received this pikachu from Professor Oak. While the limit on a normal pokemon's individual values, as Professor Oak measures them, is 30, this anomaly was the result of an experiment to push pokemon beyond their limits. All his individual values are over 40 points, a frightening thing to behold. With the special, engineered __**Light Ball**__ that Professor Oak had created just for this creature, it is possibly the most powerful pikachu in the world, without a doubt. His personality matches yours and you seem to have a strange affinity for him, as if he was created just for you. Or you were created just it. Strange. At the very least, you seem to be able to understand what it is thinking most of the time, and it you. Strange... He is much more than he seems... Sometimes, even the most powerful of gods fear that which cannot die..._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 42<br>Attack: 41  
>Defense: 39<br>Sp. Atk.: 51  
>Sp. Def.: 39<br>Speed: 44  
>Health: 34<p>

Moves Known:  
>Volt Tackle<br>Tackle  
>Growl<br>Tail Whip  
>Thundershock<br>Quick Attack  
>Thunder Wave<br>_Thunder Gatling (1/10 powered Thundershocks at 100/minute)_  
><em>Thunder Armor (125 powered Volt Tackle sustained)_  
>Thunder<p>

**POLIWAG**  
><em>Bufonidae Poliwag<em>

Weight: 27.3 lbs (12.4 kg)  
>Height: 2'0" (0.6 meters)<br>Gender: Female  
>Level: 20<p>

_You were friends with this poliwag since you were five years old. Professor Oak gave it to you as a present, the first of a few. It is a maximized pokemon from one of Oak's earlier experiments, so it is in peak condition as of physical ability. All it depends on is how you train it for it to be come even more power. It has been your faithful companion for many years through many hardships. It will continue to follow you as you walk the path that leads to your rise in power..._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 28<br>Attack: 29  
>Defense: 32<br>Sp. Atk.: 32  
>Sp. Def.: 30<br>Speed: 28  
>Health: 33<p>

Moves Known:  
>Water Sport<br>Tail Wag  
>Tackle<br>Bubble  
>Hypnosis<br>Water Gun  
>Body Slam<br>Raindance

**ALMA**  
><em>Very Cute Abra and Gastly Fusion<em>

Weight: 37.68 lbs (17.1 kg)  
>Height: 2'04" (0.7 meters)<br>Gender: Female  
>Level: 16<p>

_A very modest, little Abra, who was born because you requested it. It is still very young and seems to be learning about the world from your eyes. It will judge the world through your eyes as well. Because it is a newborn, it is still smaller and lighter than a normal Abra. It is very cute. You fused it permanently using the aid of the power of the Ho-Oh Feather with a new born Gastly. Now it is a miniature Cosmic Horror who seems to love you greatly. She is immune to physical attacks._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 32<br>Attack: 29  
>Defense: 29<br>Sp. Atk.: 48  
>Sp. Def.: 44<br>Speed: 35  
>Health: 31<p>

Moves Known:  
>Teleport<br>Telekinesis  
>Hypnosis<br>Lick  
>Spite<br>Mean Look  
>Curse<br>Night Shade  
><em>Mind Deconstruction (Psychically Powered Night Shade)<em>  
>Psychic<br>Light Screen  
>Reflect<p>

**TEX**  
><em>Nido Tyrannus Rex<em>

Weight: 10894.0 lbs (4960.0 Kg)  
>Height: 18'04"(5.6 Meters)<br>Gender: Male  
>Level: 43<p>

_It used to be the king of Viridian Forest. Now it serves you. It is four times as large as the average Nidoking. Very powerful physically. This special variation's shell is three times as thick as the normal Nidoking, and twice as dense and twice as hard. It is a practical super-tank. It has just one visible mark on its armor: the scar you gave it across it's right eye when trying to capture him._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 31<br>Attack: 59  
>Defense: 61<br>Sp. Atk.: 9  
>Sp. Def.: 31<br>Speed: 21  
>Health: 31<p>

Moves Known:  
>Chip Away<br>Double Kick  
>Earthquake<br>Earth Power  
>Flatter<br>Focus Energy  
>Helping Hand<br>Mega Punch  
>Mega Kick<br>Peck  
>Poison Sting<br>Poison Spikes  
>Poison Jab<br>Roar  
>Sludge Bomb<br>Thrash  
>Tail Whip<br>Toxic  
><em>NidoKarate Style (Punch)<em>  
><em>NidoKarate Style (Kick)<em>  
><em>NidoKarate Style (Block)<em>  
><em>NidoKarate Style (Dodge)<em>

**CHAR**  
><em>Charmander Char Char<em>

Weight: 18.7 lbs (8.5 kg)  
>Height: 2'00" (0.6 meters)<br>Gender: Male  
>Level: 18<p>

_You found this Charmander in the woods of Viridian Forest. It had lost its master, whom you found. It decided to travel with you and learn from you as your student. It has powerful flame attacks, but lacks practice and skill in the melee._

Individual Values:  
>Life Force: 24<br>Attack: 13  
>Defense: 28<br>Sp. Atk.: 31  
>Sp. Def.: 25<br>Speed: 26  
>Health: 19<p>

Moves Known:  
>Scratch<br>Growl  
>Ember<br>SmokeScreen  
>Dragon Rage<br>Tail Whip  
>Rage<br>Metal Claw

* * *

><p><strong>Red's Companions<strong>

**GREEN**

_Full Name: Fuguri, Leaffette_

Age: 12  
>Gender: Female<br>Birth: June 1 (Gemini)  
>Birth Location: Pallet Town<br>Eye: Blue  
>Hair: Brown<br>Height: 4'11" (1.5 meters)  
>Weight: 91 lbs (41.3 kg)<br>Other Measurements: 34", 23", 35"  
>Intelligence Quotient: 165<br>Education Level: High School (Complete), College (Incomplete; Pokemon Breeding), Trainer Academy (Complete)  
>Hobbies: Satoshi Tajiri, Fencing, Hacking, Painting, Violin, Electric Guitar, Finding Aliens, Time-travelers, Espers<br>Likes: Satoshi Tajiri, Udon, Perfumes, Classical Music, Romance Novels, Aliens, Time-travelers, Espers  
>Dislikes: Things Not Satoshi Tajiri, Prudish People, Jerks, Gary Oaks<br>Dreams: Satoshi Tajiri, Conquering the World, Meeting Aliens, Time-travelers, Espers

History: You have known 'Green' since you were both 6 years old, and ever since she met you, she has had a crush that border lines obsession about you. You have no idea why she is so interested in you, only that she is interested and that she is very eccentric about it. She has had a wide variety of studies all over Kanto and has given up becoming a popular Breeder in order to follow you on your journey. As she has followed you thus far, her 'love' or obsession for you has only grown. She is very cunning and astute. She can talk others into believing a bold-faced lie and talk her way out of many tight situations. She has some skill in computer hacking and classical music instruments. You find her quite odd.

_Special Skill/Trait: __**Evolver**_  
>Green is able speed up the process of or even to induce upon Pokemon the process of evolution. She is able to cause even Pokemon far below their necessary level to evolve. However she does not do so for the cosmetic reason that they are 'cuter' unevolved, the practical reason that when evolved before they are ready many Pokemon are unable to handle their power, and for the strategic reason that unevolved Pokemon are always heavily under estimated.<p>

Stats (1 to 10):  
>Cunning: 6<br>Defense: 1  
>Dexterity: 7<br>Intelligence: 9  
>Unpredictability: 42<br>Speed: 5  
>Strength: 4<br>Luck: 5

* * *

><p><strong>MISTY CLEARWATER<strong>

_Full Name: Hanada, Kasumi_

Age: 15  
>Gender: Female<br>Birth: November 16 (Scorpio)  
>Birth Location: Cerulean City<br>Eye: Blue  
>Hair: Red<br>Height: 5'4" (1.63 meters)  
>Weight: 102 lbs (46.3 kg)<br>Other Measurements: 33", 24", 36"  
>Intelligence Quotient: 120<br>Education Level: High School (Complete), Gym Tutelage (Incomplete), Hanada Clan (Incomplete)  
>Hobbies: Swimming, Biking, Boxing, Pokemon Training, Fishing<br>Likes: Water, Water Pokemon, Watery Areas, Water-like Gemstones, Swimming, Sweating, Strenuous Exercises  
>Dislikes: Team Rocket, Koga, Fuchsia City, Sisters, Dry Places<br>Dreams: Avenge Father, Control Cerulean, Have a Boyfriend

History: With her family split apart by Team Rocket and Koga, Misty has taken on another name and is on the run. Or, she was on the run until she met you. You met her when she had little else other than the cloths on her back and her few Water Pokemon that she had with her at the time of her escape. Her sisters are ignorant to the shadow politics that occurred and resulted with their Father's death, something Misty is resentful for. She thinks of her sisters as fools because all they are able to do, allowed by the Koga, is perform what little they can. They are unable to to do little else with the heavy scrutiny of Koga's ninjas, which Misty does not know about. Still, she has vowed revenge and had planned to carry out a one-person-crusade-until she met you. Now, she is internally debating if she would rather give up her old life to just live with you.

_Special Skill/Trait: __**Water Specialist**_  
>Misty is a specialist of the Water Potential. Due to both her family having to have intermingled with Water Type Pokemon in their ancestry and due to the tens of generations of the Hanada Family working along the side of many Water Type Pokemon, Misty has gained especially powerful affinities for Water Type Pokemon. She is able to understand the emotions and feeling of individual Water Pokemon and have a easier time controlling them, to a degree. She is also very adept in training Water Pokemon, almost as if it comes instinctively. Should she travel to Seafoam Islands, this power could be amplified even more.<p>

Stats (1 to 10):  
>Cunning: 8<br>Defense: 6(+1)  
>Dexterity: 3<br>Intelligence: 5  
>Unpredictability: 7<br>Speed: 6(-1)  
>Strength: 8<br>Luck: 4


End file.
